


You Could Inspire People

by MindKnox



Series: Diamonds In The Rough [5]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Abrupt Ending, Action, Badass Victoria Chase, Bittersweet Ending, Brief Doom Patrol Crosover, Brief Oxenfree Crossover, Brief References to Death Stranding, Brief References to Heavy Rain, Canon-Typical Violence, Cults, Drama & Romance, End of the World, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Love, Meta, Mild Language, Minor Body Horror, Multiverse, Not Really Character Death, Parallel Universes, Self-Sacrifice, Victoria-centric, Villain Character Death, Weirdness, brief Post-Canon, brief nudity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:48:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 29,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23137948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MindKnox/pseuds/MindKnox
Summary: Victoria wakes up in New York and must find her way back to Arcadia Bay to reunite with her wife, Kate. But there's a big problem; this isn't her Arcadia Bay. She must save this universe, her universe, and EVERY universe in the multiverse from a threat that hates her guts and personally wants her out of the picture.
Relationships: Maxine "Max" Caulfield/Chloe Price, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Rachel Amber & Victoria Chase, Victoria Chase & Chloe Price, Victoria Chase/Kate Marsh
Series: Diamonds In The Rough [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1457827
Kudos: 4





	1. Clarissa Explains A Fair Bit

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, dear readers. Welcome to the fifth chapter of my saga "Shine On, You Strange Diamonds"! This is, as of the story's initial publication, the final chapter of the saga; although I have a few ideas for a small continuation, this is the endgame. I would like to thank all of you who have followed me on this adventure and I hope that I have positively affected your lives as a writer. So, without further ado, let's dive into Part 5.
> 
> Make sure to read the first four parts for context's sake!

_Everything feels blurry. Incorrect. Early. How does it feel early?_

Her eyes open slowly. Feels like she hasn’t opened them in forever. And her HAIR! It’s so long now!

Sitting up, she can see that she’s in a hospital bed. It’s a bright day outside, the sun is shining in.

She certainly can’t get out of bed, she can barely feel her body…

How long has she been out?

Maybe that young doctor gawking at her can answer the question.

Her throat aching, she says to him, “Hey.” _He looks surprised. Good!_ He runs out the door, yelling out to his superiors. “Where am I?” Nothing. At least he’s doing something though.

The patient looks around at her body, draped in a dull blue gown. She also feels at her face and its tired, dead skin. And her hair. Her once-carefully-tended-to short hair has grown long. And she hates it, letting out a bothered sigh.

* * *

“Care to tell us your name?”

Looking at the doctor, the patient tells him her name: “Victoria Maribeth Chase. Do I know you from somewhere?”

The doctor shakes his head promptly, adding, “Not that I’d remember.” Looking at a clipboard, he asks, “Do you know what happened to you? How you landed in the hospital?”

_Explosions. War. A burning Bay. Her and her wife fighting against a zombie horde. A dark vortex swallowing up all of reality, ending it all_. “It’s a blur. A lot of it is. There was a battle to save the world. An evil tattoo demon named Bedlam wanted to destroy it. I… am gonna sound crazy when I tell you this. But it was a black hole that brought me here.” Smirking in curiosity at the still-familiar doctor, she asks, “Did you guys not see the news or anything?”

“There were no reports of black holes in, uh, anywhere.”

“It was Christmas Day! A bunch of us metahumans were fighting! And we got sucked into the hole!”

Etching on his clipboard, the doctor muses, “Perhaps we could write down ‘profound imagination’. But no, it wasn’t… that. You were involved in a car accident about eight months ago. It was pretty bad.”

Victoria freezes. Dully, she asks in a jittery shock, “Eight… months? What year is it?”

“It is 2013.”

Looking around, Victoria tells him, “But that wouldn’t make sense. It was 2014! I remember!” Pointing a finger at the doctor she seems to know, she declares angrily, “I REMEMBER!”

Standing up in fear for his safety, the doctor tells her, “Calm down, Ms. Chase.”

“That’s MRS. Chase to you, Doc! Where’s Katie? And HOW DO I KNOW YOU?”

Terrified of Victoria’s icy glare and accusatory tone, the doctor says to someone standing by her side, “Give her the shot.”

Victoria feels a sharp sting in her neck. She feels sick. Dizzy. Weakly, she yells, “No!” Everything grows blurred and jumbled together. Things get dark as her mind draws blank. “No… Sonofabitch. No.”

* * *

She reawakens as the sun has gone down. Moonlight seeps into the room, illuminating very little, but enough.

Looking at the door to the hospital halls, she sees the doctor taking a call. Stepping about, he says to his phone, “It’s worse than we thought.” Nodding his head, he responds, “I know, but… What? Sorry, I didn’t catch that.” He hears his orders once more and tells the person on the line, “I understand… Yeah, I thought you said that. The line’s been pretty staticky for the past hour or so…. Okay. It will be done. Thank you.” He hangs up his phone and walks inside.

The doctor brings with him a cold draft and sits by Victoria’s side rather familiarly. “You’re being released from the hospital. You seem perfectly recovered.” With a dropped chuckle, he adds, “You didn’t even need physical therapy.”

“You knocked me out a few hours ago.”

The doctor itches at his light brown hair and tells her nervously, “Yeah… Yeah, that’s right.” Clapping his hands together giddily, he continues, “You’ll be released and brought back to Arcadia Bay in no time.”

“How?”

“By airplane, of course.”

Victoria shakes her head doubtfully. “I guess they must’ve changed things in the area. Because I didn’t get to Arcadia Bay by flight. It was a bus ride from Portland TO Arcadia Bay. And when did I ever say I wanted to go BACK there?” She glares at the doctor once more, and it hits her just who he is: “Come to think of it, you’ve got a really familiar face… Elijah Hampden.”

He clears his throat and corrects her, “It’s Eliot.”

She misremembered ( _who could blame her?_ ), but she doesn’t care. With a smug grin, she tells him bluntly, “Shut the fuck up, Elijah.” She looks around and asks. “Now what? Gonna throw another psycho temper tantrum like you did at the Amber House?”

Eliot rises to his feet and tells her, “Actually, I was just under orders to kill you. One last shot to Heaven.” He pulls out a needle from his labcoat and holds it against the moonlight’s glimmer.

Victoria can only roll her eyes at his faux-villainy. “Like you’d ever succeed. Hell, you failed to ‘save’ Chloe.” She rhetorically scoffs at him, much to his growing rage. “Like she’d have you.”

He leans over her and holds the needle up to her face, just to show it off. “Okay, now you can shut up and die.”

From the darkness, a deep female voice tells him, “What a brilliant suggestion.”

From the darkness, a tall, rather skinny women lunges at Eliot and knocks him to the ground. Grabbing the needle from his hands, she plunges it into the neck and injects him with the entire dosage. He writhes against the injection, but it does nothing to save him. He’s dead.

Victoria tries getting a glimpse at Eliot but can’t. She asks her savior, “So he’s dead?”

Kneeling over Eliot’s corpse, the mysterious woman tells Victoria, “Yes. A shame considering his body was quite… ample for our intentions.”

Victoria elaborates with a smirk on her face, “I was just gonna say, y’know, ‘good riddance’. I’ve always hated him.” She laughs and asks, “Care to tell me who you-” The savior glares at her with glowing red eyes. Of course, it startles Victoria who mumbles annoyedly, “Fuck.”

The crimson-eyed savior inches closer towards Victoria, staring into her soul as she does so. Suddenly, another figure, a mysterious man, steps between the two and tells his female partner, “Woah, hey, let me do the talking.”

Victoria asks him, “Are you two together?”

The mysterious man looks at the crimson-eyed savior and says with a loving smile, “It’s been that way for about a year now.”

Something about that warms up Victoria’s heart. She tells them, “Congratulations.” Getting back to business, the crimson-eyed savior grabs Victoria out of bed, pulling her away from her sheets. “Hey, easy now.” She holds Victoria in her arms and Victoria comments, “Pretty strong for a girl with spaghetti arms… N-no offense. It’s a joke. Sorry.”

She tells Victoria coldly as ever, “The Sunken do the heavy lifting.”

Victoria raises an eyebrow to this and asks around, “The who?”

The mysterious man explains simply, “They’re ghosts.”

The three head towards the window and Victoria comments, “I’ve heard about stranger shit.”

* * *

The door to an apartment somewhere on the Upper West Side opens with the wind as Victoria is carried onto the duo’s couch. The mysterious man says happily, “Welcome to our humble home”, as he closes the door behind them all and takes off his mask.

Grabbing a beer from the refrigerator, the mysterious woman shudders and shakes away her demons from within. “Sorry if the Sunken scared you. They’re dicks, if we’re being honest. My name’s Clarissa.” She sips her beer and lets out a hearty burp.

“And I’m Michael.” He waves at Victoria with a goofy smile on his face. 

Waving back at him and Clarissa, she says with a smile, “Nice to meet you two.” Clarissa tosses a beer can at Victoria who grabs it without even looking. She turns to see her and asks, “Have we met before? I feel like I’d know you from somewhere…”

Clarissa shrugs her shoulders and tells her, “In another universe, perhaps.” Walking back to the fridge, she asks Victoria, “Want anything to eat? We’ve got some birthday cake in the fridge. Also, if you have any questions, ask. I’m sure you have a ton.”

“Why did you save me? I mean, you clearly know about other universes.”

As Michael passes Victoria a big slice of cake on a plate, Clarissa explains, “We got you out of there because there is a threat to all existence that the Sunken detected. Her name is Maxine Caulfield.”

Victoria gulps in fear and confusion, but also can’t help to correct Clarissa on one minor detail: “It’s just Max, really. Anyways, uh, how is she a threat to all existence?”

“She has made alterations to this timeline. That’s how ‘Sunken the Friendly Ghosts’ put it. She’s stopped people from being born, joined in on world famous events for her own benefit, and she’s apparently planning something big. Something dangerous. Something that could destroy all life ever.”

“Oh, no. That’s not Max. Or not my Max. That’s this other asshole called the Other Max. Two words: Major. Bitch.”

Tapping her head as if to summon the Sunken and let them know, Clarissa tells her, “That sounds right. After all, there are two Maxes. One of them’s in Arcadia Bay.”

“And the other?”

“Somewhere outside of time. The Sunken couldn’t get a pin on her.”

Victoria sighs and asks, while chowing down on a chunk of birthday cake, “And I’m the only person who can stop them?”

Clarissa shrugs her shoulders once again. “There are people who will help you in one way or another - some more involved in stopping this ‘Other Max’ than others. We’re here on this neck of the race because you needed help getting out of that hospital and back on your feet.”

“Makes sense.” Looking down at her hospital gown, Victoria asks, “Do you guys have anything I could wear? And maybe some scissors?”

* * *

_SNIP SNIP_. Carefully, Victoria eyes herself in the bathroom mirror as she trims away at her long locks of hair. Having never done this herself, she can’t quite capture that old look of hers. But she’ll do the best she damn well can.

As midnight approaches, she lies on the living room’s couch, afraid of this strange, new universe. Worried for her strange, old universe.

_Was it truly gone? Were she and Max the sole survivors of a dead timeline?_

_BRRRRINK BRINK BRIIIN._ Her phone is ringing. A call from an old friend. Max Caulfield. _Speak of the devil_. She picks up and asks, “Max?”

Max speaks in a cold tone, much like her more sinister counterpart, Other Max: “You just couldn’t leave good enough alone, couldn’t ya?”

Remembering some more details of her arrival triggered by the day’s prior events, Victoria tells her angrily, “You brought me here, didn’t you?”

“I did, and I hoped you’d die when I crashed you into that road divider!”

“Now, you’re gonna try to kill me.”

“No. Not now. That’d be too boring. We both have an audience to tend to, y’know, and you’re needed for the grand finale.” “I hope you’re ready, Vicky. Because I’m going to fucking end you.” If she could crush her phone in her hands, Victoria feels like she certainly could do so. Just listening to the Other Max’s prattle makes her want to go back into a coma. It’d certainly be less annoying. “I’ll see you on the Bay… Oh, also, I took the liberty of wiping out your bloodline in this universe. Good luck boarding any flights! M‘kay, byyyye!”

_Time to leave_. Victoria hops off the couch and grabs some clothes from a big backpack Michael had lent her. She slips a leather jacket over her pajamas and ties up her sneakers.

The soft commotion is enough to wake up the married couple, and Clarissa asks, “Leaving so soon?”

“I need to get to Arcadia Bay. It’s important I go now.”

“We could drive you in the morning to, I dunno, LaGuardia. It’s okay.”

“I can’t wait. I must go now. Besides, I’ve been unpersoned. Can’t catch a flight or anything.” Victoria walks over to the two and wraps them up in a nice hug. “Thank you for the cake, the beer, the shower. I hope we meet again someday.”

Clarissa pats Victoria on the shoulder and tells her with a smirk, “As do I, Victoria. Take care of yourself.”

And just like that, she walks out of the apartment into the new world that awaits her.

She knows what she must do. It’s time to save the world.


	2. The Winding Road to Heck

~~DEC SEPTEMBER 3~~ OCTOBER 1ST,  ~~ 2014 ~~ 2013

_ Nailed it. _

A train stops in Pittsburgh as afternoon reclaims the day. It stops because of a drifter, one not holding a ticket.

Shoving Victoria off the train onto the platform below, she looks at him with a scowl and tells him, “I’m goiiiing! Alright!” The conductor of the train looks down at her from onboard the vessel and huffs, passing her backpack into her grasp. Perhaps he sympathizes with her. But the universe has little time to look for sympathy, as does his employers. He retreats further into the train, moving on with his day, as it continues its travels.

Victoria rises to her feet and dusts herself off. She grabs her backpack and looks around for a way to go. Suddenly, a loose voice asks her, “Shit, those guys caught you too?”

Turning to see the source, Victoria spots two interesting looking drifters - one black with blonde dyed hair, one white with dark brown hair. She nods at them, “Mhm.” Of course, she recognizes Penny from her few meetings with his younger counterpart in her timeline, so she asks (to establish familiarity), “Fine day we’re having, huh?”

Penny shrugs his shoulders and tells her, “It’s pretty cool for the late-summer, but it’s not bad.” Scratching at his stubble, he asks Victoria, “Where you headed?”

“Arcadia Bay.”

Penny and Jinx both look at each other, a bit surprised. With a sole chuckle, Jinx asks, “That place? Didja lose a bet?”

Victoria thinks it over and says, “You could say that.” She walks over to the two and holds out her hand. “My name’s Victoria.”

Jinx shakes it and tells her, “I’m Jinx. This is Penny. We’re just lonely drifters trekkin’ across the globe… er, country, I mean.”

Penny carefully observes Victoria’s shaky demeanor and asks, “Hey. You’re alright?”

Hearing her stomach grumble mildly, she tells him, “I’m… a little hungry, actually.”

“Us too. Heh. But check it.” Penny pulls out a large satchel of stolen goods - namely, bags of graham crackers and boxes of apple juice courtesy of the train - and shows it off to Victoria. “We snatched all of it when we could. Want some?”

“Definitely.” Victoria grabs several bags and boxes, stuffing them into her coat pockets. She also opens a bag and eats from it quickly while also following the two away from the platform and into the station. 

Approaching the streets outside, Jinx catches sight of a bus. Their bus.  **_Destination: Cloverton, OH_ ** .

Penny says to Victoria, “That’s our bus. Wanna come? We’re headed to Cali, with a shitload of pit stops in between!”

Figuring that’s a good direction to go, she tells him, “That could work.”

* * *

Having paid for her own ticket while Penny and Jinx got theirs early, Victoria joins the two as they board the bus and continue travelling eastward.

Victoria looks out at the world from her window, musing to herself what will be next in her mission -  _ will Max remember her? Is that Vortex Club party still happening in a few days? Can she make it in time? _

“Where you from?” Victoria looks to her right where, from across the aisle, Penny had asked his question.

“I was born and raised in Seattle, then I moved to Arcadia Bay for high school. Then, a whole bunch of shit happened…” It all comes back to her. Every bad thing she did at the Bay. And boy, it was a lot.  _ Bullying, manipulation, trickery and back stabbings galore _ . “A lot of it was bad, and most of it I caused… but a lot of it was good too. Like really good.”  _ Like Katie. Like Katie saving her from a lonely self-destructive lifestyle. Like Katie helping her reconcile with her parents. Like road trips, bowling nights, breakfasts in bed and philanthropy work. _ “I ended up in New York, and now I’m trying to get back home.”

Jinx says once again of Arcadia Bay, “I’ve heard of that place. It looks pretty and all, but the stories people tell are… scary.”

“They are. I’ve had run-ins with some of their worst. But there are people there who are good. Like my… wife.”

Both Penny and Jinx are quite shocked by this. They ask themselves internally:  _ How young even is she? Where is that legal? Was it done legally? _

Jinx asks Victoria, “How’d you do that?”

A part of her wants to tell the two the truth. Still… “If I told you, honestly, you’d think I’m insane. When me and my wife first met, we were not on good terms. At all. But then something happened. It felt like the whole world was collapsing around us, but we found each other. It was odd. And I was scared. But I was also sorry. Sorry for all the bad things I put her through. I was the one who made things not good between us when we first met… I was like that with a lot of people. But she had me. She listened. She gave me a second chance. And I like to think she’ll have me again.”

Penny tells her with a reassuring smile on his face, “The way you talk about her, I think she will.”

Jinx adds, “It’s best to just always have faith. Hell, when I met Penny, we were at the lowest points in our lives. But once we got together, things looked brighter. I saw a chance to make peace with the world given the way it is, regardless of how shitty it is. Of course, things won’t just get better overnight, but they’ll feel better. And that’s what counts, right?”

Victoria slowly nods her head, understanding loud and clear. “Yeah. I can see things that way.”

* * *

They’ve reached their stop. From here on out is, unfortunately for Victoria, anyone’s guess. The three step out of the bus and begin to head their separate ways. As Jinx jogs ahead into that great unknown of Ohio, Penny waves to Victoria: “Take care of yourself out there, Victoria.”

“Uh huh. Thanks.” She must talk to him. She must warn him. For his happiness’ sake. “Wait, Penny!” He turns around and awaits her response. “Please look out for Jinx. Please. I know he isn’t superbly well but I trust you to take care of him. Good care of him.”

Penny sighs, knowing exactly what she means. “I know. He scares me sometimes. Not in a ‘aah, he’s gonna kill me’ way. In a ‘I want to hold you tight and make sure all is alright’ way. But trust me, I’m gonna do everything I can to protect him.”

Victoria smiles at him and continues, “Yes. Please keep good care of him. Even if he strays out on his own, you hold onto him and you DO NOT let go of him. Please.”

“I can do that… You two know each other?”

“No. But… I can see that he needs someone to take careful care of him. And you’re the guy to do so.” She walks over to Penny and puts a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Take good care of each other.”

Penny gives Victoria a thumbs up and honestly reassures her, “Yeah. Sure thing. We’ll do that, I promise. Really.”

“Good.” She pats him on the back and he walks along on his merry way. “Au revoir.”

* * *

Having taken the chance to walk around Town Square on this breezy autumn day, Victoria spots a telephone booth on the corner. She walks inside and dials up Max. She hopes she’ll be her friend and not the evil doppelganger who threatened her earlier.

On the other line, Victoria’s friend answers tiredly, “Wassup?”

“Max Caulfield?”

Max yawns and asks, “Who is this?”

“I’m a student at Blackwell. I don’t think we’ve met. My name’s Victoria.”

A pause on Max’s end, spawned from confusion, before being broken up with an unenthusiastic “Okay? And why are you calling me?”

“I was wondering if you knew when that Vortex Club party was at? If you’ve heard about it, of course. Eight o’clock, still, right?”

Max clicks her teeth and confirms, “Nah, we deemed that too early. And classes usually end at six, so we settled on six.”

Victoria pauses in befuddlement and asks, “‘We’?”

“Of course, girl! I’m the head of the Club!”

If Victoria didn’t know any better, she would think she’s getting punked! But, hey,  _ alternate universes _ . No ill intent is likely. With a mildly panicked smile, Victoria says, “Cool! That’s so…” Max hangs up on her with a  _ klik _ . “so… you. Okay, bye.” She puts the phone down and sighs, rather offended.

She steps out of the booth in a huff and looks around as the sun starts to set. Hearing her stomach grumble once again ( _ thanks for nothing, crackers and juice _ ), Victoria looks for a dive to eat at.

And to her luck, right across the park is an interesting looking fast food place, decorated in bright neon and flashy frills: McDanny’s. She marches onward in search of a meal.

All she has to do is come on down to Danny Street.


	3. Your Danny-stination Is Just Upstreet!

As Victoria walks down the street past bright and fancy storefronts, she feels a message sent through the text on the windows.

She stops in front of a telephone center, “ _Danny Street Communications Center_ ”, as she sees the words shift about and morph into “ _Howdy, friend!_ ” Victoria can’t tell whether she’s going crazy or this is just a thing in this universe. _Of all the things I’ve seen, a talking street feels like a bridge too far_. But she digresses as she walks into the fast food joint she saw earlier.

She grabs a seat and a rollerblading server immediately glides over to her table. “Hello and welcome to McDanny’s! What are you looking for today?”

Having not seen a menu, Victoria asks, “How much does a cheeseburger cost?”

“All it costs is a smile when you’re here!” The server offers her an honest grin and two thumbs up.

Victoria looks up at the server in confusion and tells her, “I mean, like, in cash.”

The server tells her, with the shake of her head, “No cash. Service and a smile are all the payment we need here on Danny the Street!”

“Yeah, I could use a cheeseburger then. And ginger ale, please.”

Gently patting Victoria on the shoulder, the server says, “Comin’ right up!”, before skating away into the kitchen. Several minutes later, she skates back to Victoria and hands her her meal: “Here ya go!”

“That was fast. Hey, uh, just out of curiosity, who is Danny the Street? Is he, like, your manager?”

“Danny is the street. And they’re genderqueer. They go by ‘they/them’ pronouns.”

Victoria nods her head, as if to wrap her head around the idea of a talking genderqueer street. At this point, it’s not a difficult task. “Ah. Okay. How do I meet… them?”

“You likely already have. They’re the street. Danny the Street.”

“I’m just gonna roll with that. I mean, I’ve heard of weirder stuff.” Victoria giggles to herself and takes a bite out of the cheeseburger. The _delicious_ cheeseburger.

“So did I, especially with Danny! There was this one town full of animal people, in Pennsylvania. And then there was that place from the show ‘Twin Peaks’.”

In amusement, Victoria cups her chin and muses to herself quietly, “Those have always been there?”

“I guess so.” Looking at the clock above her, the server says, “Ah, gotta get back to work! Oh, and here’s a menu. Just so you can speak to Danny.” She hands Victoria a menu… a little weird, but she’s seen weird already. It’s like a best friend at this point. Almost.

“Thanks.”

“See ya around!” Once more, the server skates away to resume her job.

Victoria looks around, worried at what the image of her talking to a menu will look like, and speaks to it, “Hi, Danny. My name’s Victoria Chase.”

The words on the menu begin to shift about as they did at the call center: “ _Nice to meet you, Victoria!_ ”

“How long have you been around?”

“ _I’m an eighties baby!_ ”

Victoria looks around at the neon lights implemented around the restaurant and tells Danny, “Yeah, I could see it. So you’re just a… a living street?” _DING DING_ rings one of the cash registers. “Alright. Well, it’s been nice knowing you but I’ve gotta go. Arcadia Bay awaits me.”

Victoria’s ginger ale bubbles, with the bubbles fluttering into the air and popping out, “ _I could take you there!_ ”

She raises an eyebrow to this and asks them, “How?”

The menu states, “ _I’m a big traveller, love._ ” The diner rustles just a bit as Danny brings themself to a new part of the world.

The night skies of Ohio fade into orange blue hues. It’s the late-afternoon. In Seattle anyhow. Victoria looks out the window as her eyes widen. “Whaaaaat the fuuuuck?”

Quickly, Victoria leaves the restaurant with her burger in one hand and the menu in the other. She looks down at the menu and asks Danny, “How often do you do this?”

A billboard atop the bright pink Perpetual Cabaret tells her, “ _A lot._ ”

“When will we get to Arcadia Bay?”

A _bzzt_ comes to Victoria’s phone for a notification or two:

_Alarm set for October 2nd, 2013 at 9PM-ish._

_Alarm deleted ;D_

Looking down at the notifications, Victoria tells Danny as she walks around the travelling town, “How convenient.”

Standing by a telephone pole, Victoria spots a peculiar flier: “ _I know of your struggles. I know French too._ ”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” _Bzzt._

TEXT FROM DANNY THE STREET

_It’ll make sense later…_

Victoria wonders to herself in annoyance, _Why the drama, Danny?_

TEXT FROM DANNY THE STREET

_JK LOL I can tell you._

_I’m a friend of a friend. You may know him. His name is Samuel Taylor._

“Him?!” Victoria yells in surprise, much to the… surprising lack of shock from the people around her going about their day. “What’s he got to do with… whatever is happening?” 

Danny tells her, in the form of an open book on display in the Danny Street Library: “ _He got to talking to a friendly little ghost, an actor buddy, the local flora and fauna, a downtrodden young lass, and yours truly. And now, I’m talking to you._ ”

“Who are these friends of his?” _Bzzt._

_New contacts added._

  * _Jessie A._


  * Jared Y. B.


  * Clarissa C.


  * Lisa P.


  * Sunshine R.


  * Newman D. S.


  * Samuel T.



Walking down the street past the Danny Street Hotel, Danny asks through a neon sign, “ _Need a place to sleep?_ ”

“Yes please.” She walks through the front doors, reserves a room, and heads upstairs into her room, 222. She picks up on the reference to her past and appreciates it, smiling as she walks in.

Pulling off her sneakers and crashing on the bed, Victoria says tiredly, “Good night, Danny.”

On the television, Danny says to her, “ _Good night and pleasant dreams, love!"_

* * *

Cool air blows through the Bay. Victoria feels a shake of her shoulder as a young boy asks, “You okay there, Mrs. Chase?”

Sitting up quickly, she tells the people around her, “I feel alright.” Victoria looks around and sees the youth of the Bay sitting by her - Sean Diaz, his friend Lyla, his boyfriend Jacob, their many drifter friends Finn, Cassidy, Penny and Hannah - all looking somewhat concerned for her. Victoria rubs her eyes: “Shit, sorry. What happened?”

Hannah explains, “We were just going over homework.”

Victoria nods her head, “Oh, yeah… Wait.” She looks down at the white dress she’s wearing, the sun hat atop her head, and the blue binder labelled “TEACHER PLANS” in front of her. She looks around at the Arcadia Bay she’s seemingly landed in. Bigger buildings have been built in town - surely for apartments and businesses alike - and more people drive by Blackwell than usual. More people are studying by Blackwell too. _Maybe another school opened up?_

Sean asks, worried for Victoria, “Professor Chase?”

She rises to her feet and asks, “Uh, ‘professor’?” Her breathing heightens and she asks her students in increasing panic, “C’mon, what is this? A prank or something? Is this some Other Max shit? M-Max told me about your TRICKS!” She looks around for a response from some dastardly villain, only being answered in silence.

Penny gently sits her back down and tells her calmly and reassuringly, “Max said this would happen. It’s okay, you’re safe.”

“What day is it?”

“Sunday?”

Victoria sucks her teeth and asks again, “I mean the year, Penny.”

“Oh, it’s 2015. September 20th, 2015.”

SEPTEMBER 20TH, 2015 (There’s the title card!)

Looking around in confusion, she asks, “What is going on?”

Sean explains to her, “You’re having those flickers. Max told us about them too.” Victoria gulps, petrified about this information, so Sean reassures her, “Not the Other Max, you already took care of her.”

“Gimme- gimme a recap.”

“Okay, you’re a teacher’s assistant for Mrs. Eriksen’s Art class. And we’re going over the photography project she assigned us that’s due in about a week. Also, we’re preparing for the guest who is coming tomorrow.”

“And you guys are her students?”

Sean nods his head and adds, “Yes. We- we’re your students at Blackwell too. You’re both working together”

Victoria lays her head down on the desk and tells him, “I’m just gonna take another nap, if that’s all fine! Don’t mind me!”

Lyla intervenes and says, “Look, Mrs. Chase-”

“Just call me Victoria for now!”

“Victoria, it’s okay. Just relax, breath, okay? You’re having an anxiety attack. Tell me what you see.”

Victoria looks around and observes her surroundings. “I see trees. Uh, birds? You guys. Don’t think we’ve met by the way. Like, in the past.” She extends a hand out to Lyla.

Calmly shaking her hand, the student says with a smirk, “I’m Lyla Park. It’s very nice to meet you.” Her senses coming back to her slowly but surely, she asks, “Okay. Do I list anything else?”

“What do you hear?”

The birds in the trees whistle gently, singing their natural songs. “I hear the birds chirping. I hear you, obviously.”

“How are you feeling?”

Victoria grabs hold of a water bottle by her hip and takes a few sips of it. “I feel better. Thank you.”

“Anytime. It’s something my therapist taught me.” Lyla heads back over to her seat and looks down at her notes.

“Y’know, I used to be big on photography. I might’ve already bragged about it in class, surely, so sorry about that. How can I help you out with this… what was it again?”

“Can you tell us who Louis Daguerre is again?”

Victoria smirks at the students and lets out a laugh. Reminiscing on her past, Victoria says in a joking manner, “Psshaw, I remember this. Easy peasy. He’s a French guy who made paintings and called them ‘daguerreotypes’. You guys taking notes?” The students attend to their notes and write up what they can. “Good, just jot that down. Oh, and how these daguerreotypes were very sharp-looking in detail. Truly revolutionary… That’s also, uh, kinda the only stuff I remember about him.” She itches at the back of her head, happy to help these kids.

Finn says to her, “Cool! Thanks, man! Oof, I can’t wait to tell him all about it when he comes to class tomorrow?”

“He’s alive?”

Cassidy gives her a thumbs up and tells her, “Uh-huh. He’s presenting to us.”

The first word that can come to Victoria’s head is the one she says: “Groovy.” She opens her binder and quickly comes to a vocal realization: “Wait, he’s alive! Like in my univer- Oh shit, OUR universe! Oh my god, you guys are alive!” She laughs happily and wipes a tear away from her eye. She really can’t help herself at the moment.

“Yeah, we beat Bedlam and everything. It was awesome.”

Jacob hops in and adds, “Well, it was a team effort.”

Victoria asks him, “Who else is alive, Jake?”

“Everyone, actually. Still, it wasn’t all about the casualties. I mean, Oregon was a wreck to say the least.”

Under her breath, Victoria says to herself, “Shit.”

“But they rebuilt. And here we are.”

“That’s good to hear.” Victoria rises to her feet and opens her arms to the table. “C’mon, ring it in. C’mere, all of you.” Confused but accepting, the students comply and stand up to give their teacher a hug. Victoria holds them all in her grasp and says happily, “Aw man, I feel so good… I feel like waking up right now.”

Hannah asks, “How so?”

“My flickers come in dreams. Didn’t Max tell you about that?” Collectively, her students nod. “Right. Well, it was good seeing you all… in the past. God, this’ll be so confusing to manage. Well… I’ll see you all in the future.” She steps away from these kids of hers and says to them with a grin on her face, “Au rev-”

* * *

OCTOBER 2ND, ~~2014~~ 2013

Victoria reawakens in her hotel room. Slowly, she sits up and looks around at the room around her. The sun shines through the blinds, and she smiles at the light.

Skipping along the street, Victoria proclaims, “My world’s alive, Danny! Isn’t that just wonderful?”

A banner flutters over the town, telling her, “ _It is wonderful, love! :)_ ” A neon sign outside of McDanny’s asks Victoria, “ _BREAKFAST? Try McDanny’s!_ ”

“You betcha.”

* * *

Gobbling down a three-cheese omelette, Victoria explains to Danny, “The drifters told me everyone was alive. And that’s all I need to hear. Things are looking up, y’know?” Drinking some home-brewed coffee, she adds, “Say, do you think you exist in my universe? Like an alternate you? I’d love to be acquainted with that Danny too if you’re any indicator of cool streets to talk to.”

A small paper floats over to Victoria’s table which has written on it, “ _I could see it._ ”

Victoria hugs the paper and says, “I’m gonna miss you, Danny. When I get to Arcadia Bay.”

The paper extends and Victoria reads Danny’s new message: “ _I miss everyone who goes, but I hope you know that, like everyone else here, you are one of my most memorable friends._ _But I’m always happy to know that there’ll be another Danny for you to meet._ _Ooh, maybe me and them can be penpals!_ ”

Taking another sip of the coffee, Victoria tells them, “I’d be willing to help you out with that. I dunno how, but I could try.”

She flips the paper on the other side, which reads: “ _I’ve just the person who can help!_ ”

* * *

Standing by the Danny Street Post Office, Victoria keeps an eye out for the mailman who Danny said would be a good idea - “The Man Who Delivers”. Finally, he arrives and Danny says to him on the Post Office’s marquee: “ _Good morning, Mr. Bridges! Care to help with the message?_ ”

Mr. Bridges, clad in a blue jumpsuit and futuristic sunglasses - pulls Danny’s letter out of a mailbox and looks at the address: Universe-227. The mailman tells them, “I can try.”

Victoria looks at him and asks, “Are you Norman Reedus?!”

The mailman shakes his head and tells her, “No. Big fan though. You ever watch ‘Ride with Norman Reedus’ on AMC?”

“Uh, not really. Sorry.”

Mr. Bridges shrugs his shoulders and tells Victoria, “That’s alright, kid. Here.” He offers her a thumbs up and a smirk on his rugged, bearded face.

_Bzzt_ goes Victoria’s phone. She checks it and a notification pops up:

_Sam Bridges gave you seven likes._

Victoria looks up at Mr. Bridges and gives him a thumbs up back, saying, “Thanks.”

“Good luck, Mr. B!” And with a running start, Mr. Bridges dashes off into the great unknown that is Seattle.

“How’s he gonna get through the multiverse?”

A radio on a mailbox says to Victoria: “ _Certain channels around the globe. Very hard to find, very hard to use, but he’s a man with a reputation. I trust him. Don’t know if you’ll be using those channels just yet, eh?_ ”

“No. I’ve got to find my friends and my wife.”

“ _That is true. Plus the pathways are very buggy._ ” Victoria pauses, a bit concerned for this Reedus-looking mailman’s fate. “ _We’re due to leave Seattle at nine. Then, off to Arcadia Bay!_ ”

Looking around at the town, she tells Danny, “Would it be possible for me to get a makeover? Sorry if that sounds selfish or anything.”

A sign on the Danny Street Salon Parlor says to Victoria, “ _No worries!"_

* * *

Victoria figures that, if she’s gonna go up and say “hi” to her old friends, then it is time to go back to the old look that she’s associated herself with. That sleek pixie cut, the uber-comfortable cashmere sweaters, her dolled up face, and her stylish skirts and shoes. Danny seems more than happy to give her these clothes. And they agree that she looks spectacular.

And with impeccable timing too: they’ve arrived at Arcadia Bay. Nine on the dot.

* * *

Victoria looks at herself in the mirror in her hotel room’s bathroom. Gently inscribed around the mirror are Danny’s words of encouragement: “You look fabulous, darling!”

She thanks them for the compliment, saying, “Thanks, Danny. If it’s all fine with you, I’ll stay here for the night.”

On the television, Danny tells her, “ _No problemo! I’ll be here a while too, if that’s any comfort._ ” As Victoria lays on her bed, Danny adds, “ _Pleasant dreams, love!_ ”

“Good night, Danny. Here’s to a bright tomorrow.” She tucks herself into bed and drifts off into a pleasant slumber.

* * *

OCTOBER 3RD, 2013

The sun shines on the Arcadia Bay afternoon. Victoria steps off of Danny the Street, thanking them profusely for their hospitality, as a squirrel scurries to her side. It squeaks at her, seemingly telling her a message, before running away to the Two Whales Diner. She hurriedly follows after the critter, laughing to herself in glee.

Looking through a pair of binoculars, the villainous cult leader known as the Storm Singer rumbles, “There she is. That sinful heathen.”

His ally, the manipulative Lisbeth Fischer, places a hand on his shoulder and tells him, “Now, Singer, there’s no need for such colorful language. But first, the Master must be informed.” She pulls out a radio and says to it, “Master.”

The other voice of the Other Max speaks through it, asking, “What is it, Reverend Mother?”

“Victoria Chase has arrived.”

The Other Max growls in rage,“That loathsome fucking cunt. And she’s early too!” As the two religious folk exchange looks of worry with one another, the Master tells her minions, “It doesn’t matter. Everything is going according to my design. Let her come. Let her learn the way things are now.”


	4. ArcadiArrival

TEXT FROM SAMUEL TAYLOR

_ Good noon, child. _

_ We meet again. _

TEXT FROM VICTORIA CHASE

_ Samuel, lovely talking to you as always. _

TEXT FROM SAMUEL TAYLOR

_ Samuel is sure. _

_ Suivez l'agent. Ensuite nous parlons. _

TEXT FROM VICTORIA CHASE

_ Can I get a translation please? _

A young waitress walks up to Samuel’s table and asks him, “Would you like another plate of apple fritters?”

He turns to look at the girl, recognizing her as a rather memorable and studious Blackwell alumnus. He tells her with a smirk, “Yes, child. And french fries. Samuel thanks you in advance.”

As the waitress heads off into the kitchen, Victoria steps inside, following a squirrel who scurries onto Samuel’s shoulders and whispers squeaks into his ear. Victoria says to Samuel as she takes a seat, “Hi.”

“Good noon once more.”

“It is. So you called me here. I assume Danny told you I was on my way.”

“Oui oui. They were of the utmost aid to our mission. Care for potatoes?”

She raises an eyebrow to this and asks, “Like, raw?”

“We try to keep a positive grade with the food inspector.”

Victoria looks up at the waitress, letting out a chuckle at the incredibly lame joke. But leave it to Chloe Price to crack jokes like that. “Chloe! Holy shit, hi!” As she places the food on their table, Victoria stands up and holds her in a tight hug, happy to see a friend. Looking at her, she sees that she’s let her hair grow long, so she compliments her, “Hey, I’m digging the long golden locks. Looks good on you.”

Chloe smirks at the customer and asks, confused, “Do I know you from somewhere?”

Victoria looks around at their surroundings and tells her, “Yeah. We hated each other for years, but then we were friends after we got over everything. You got together with Max, and maybe Rachel. Remember?”

“Max hasn’t talked to me in years. Too busy being cool with the Vortex Club. Plus, I don’t remember ever meeting you or this ‘Rachel’.”

“But you have to. We’re friends. All of us.”

Chloe sighs, not having an inkling of a memory with these people. “I don’t remember, sorry. But I’d love to chat about this sometime after work. It sounds interesting.”

Victoria sits back down and tells her, “Forget it. Sorry about messing up your day.”

With a big grin on her face, Chloe reassures her cheerfully, “No biggie! Oh, and thanks for the compliment. Natural’s the way to go if you ask me!” She looks to her mom at the front counter as she taps her imaginary wristwatch. “Coming, mom!” And like that, she rushes back to work.

Grabbing a few fries and eating them, Victoria asks, “She seems so much sunnier. What changed?”

“You know of Mr. Price, no?”

“Vaguely.” Suddenly, it hits Victoria. How much his death shifted her life. “Oh my god. That explains a lot. So Max’s a bitch and Chloe’s all nice and shit. What is the world coming to?”

Feeding an apple fritter to his squirrel, Samuel calmly warns, “Assuming we don’t stop the Other Max, its end.” As he too eats from the fritter, he tells her, “Eat up. You must be strong for what is to come.” His phone begins to ring. “But don’t be too loud. Samuel has a phone call coming in…” Samuel pulls out his phone and answers a call. He answers to the sounds of violin music.

In a whisper, Victoria says who she knows to be the artist behind the music. Her one and only… “Katie…”

* * *

The violin music swirl and twirl through the hallowed halls of the Girls’ Dormitory, courtesy of none other than Kate Marsh. As she stands before a window, playing gently as ever, she hears a knock at the door and a question, asked by the leader of the Vortex Club: “Kate, you alright in there?”

“Never better. Come in, Max.” Still playing as Max walks in, she asks her friend, “What brings you over?”

Max stands around and tells her, “Nothing, just finished class for today and I wanted to see my fave!”

“Aw, you.” Kate shoots a smile at Max's way and keeps on playing. “How’s Lisa doing these days?”

Max shrugs her shoulders. “She’s growing big and strong. Soon, she’ll be saying her first words!” The two chuckle amongst each other before Max asks, “And Alice?”

“She’s superb. Just a little ball of life.”

As Max sits around and listens to the music, she feels familiarity with it as she leans in to get a better listen. “What song is this?”

Kate answers, “An original composition.” She really gets into the music, almost dancing to it. “Oh, ain’t it fun?”

It hits Max just how she remembers it. It is ‘ain’t it fun’. By Paramore. In violin form. She tells her with a smile, “Yes. It is.”

* * *

“Wait, that song’s not out yet.”

“Meaning we’re making headway. Things are getting strange again. Thank you, Lisa, for your call.” He hangs up the call and places his phone back into his pocket.

Squinting at Samuel, she asks, “Is that good?”

“Half and half, child. It is merely as Samuel has foreseen. Like me, you must see the larger picture.” Feeding the rest of the fritter to his friendly woodland critter, Samuel notes, “You haven’t contacted your contacts yet.”

“No… Being with Danny was a nice break from… everything.”

“We have no time to lose now. Soon, you will meet my associates… and regrettably, your enemies.”

Victoria freezes up, concerned about this idea of ‘enemies’ plural. She asks, “Like who?”

“There is a vast and insidious plot at play. The Other Max has gathered a team of villains to hurt you and slow you down. They are dangerous and operate as her Children of Nature’s Winds.”

Victoria groans, angry at the mere mention of their name: “Goddammit. I remember those assholes… So I gotta fight them or something?”

“Yes, but you won’t be alone. You will have your allies by your side.”

Victoria ponders that notion and asks, “So, what’s the plan?”

Samuel pulls out a flier from his pocket and hands it to Victoria. On it reads:

**The party is ON!**

**October 4th, in the year of our lord 2013!**

**Party ‘til the sunrise!**

**THE VORTEX CLUB**

**THE GATEWAY TO A WORLD BEYOND YOUR WILDEST DREAMS**

He tells her, “You are to infiltrate this party tomorrow at evening. Find the Other Max and confront her.”

Looking down at the paper, Victoria remarks, “You make it sound easy. But I know it won’t be.”

“Yes. Do be careful. As you remember, the Vortex is a powerful force of nature. And a dangerous one at that.”

In spite of Samuel’s mission, Victoria has her own reasons for going. Unrelated to the Other Max, Samuel, or anyone else.

She’s going for Kate. She has to save Kate.

… Though how she’ll go about it is unknown to her. And that kinda frightens her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Work on this story is going swimmingly, what with the quarantine going on! It makes me happy!
> 
> Please, if you have ANY thoughts on this story, please comment and leave kudos.


	5. Time To Change Time (Or Commit A Crime)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so here's a heads up: this is gonna be the chapter where the "Canon-Typical Violence" tag comes into play. So be careful about that if it will affect you negatively as a reader.

OCTOBER 4TH, 2013

Victoria remembers:  _ Blackwell Gymnasium. And I gotta hurry. Unlike me, this alt-Max has weird ways of timing shit. _

She dashes up to the front door and proceeds into the build- “Would you like to get in, girlie?”

Victoria slowly backs out of the building to see the source of that Southern voice: a redhead security guard. One likely hired by the Vortex Club considering she’s way too old to be in school. She says swiftly, “Yes.”

Handing her a ticket and a plastic flask, the guard tells her, “Okay. Welcome to the party.” After Victoria sprints back into the party, the guard sees a lull in people trying to get in. She sees a chance to click a button under the table and whisper to it, “She’s here, fellas. Come and get her.”

Inside the party - as it was, as it is, as it always will be - there is deafeningly loud music blaring through the loudspeakers installed throughout. Plenty of song and dance filling the world of the Vortex Club as the youth party their minds out of their heads. Just for one night (or so they would typically claim).

As much as she would love to stick around and listen to this bop playing, Victoria is still on a mission, and so she follows the night’s events as she knows them:  _ Katie’ll be here by now, or she’ll be here soon. Maybe Max’ll keep her safe. Or maybe she’ll do the opposite. She’ll do the Victoria thing. _

_ I HAVE to stop that from happening. Find the bar, find the bar, find the bar _ .

And in the light of the party, by the bar, there she is. Pouring herself a small glass of wine. Not enough to get her drunk, of course, but that was never the aim.

Not while Nathan Prescott is standing by her.  _ SHIT _ .

The young king of Blackwell tells Kate with a devilish smirk on his face, “Stings a lot, eh?” Slowly, he hands her a glass of water. A spiked glass of water. “That’s alright. Have some wat-” Victoria trips into him, knocking the liquid onto his red varsity jacket. Pissed at her, he exclaims, “Hey, watch where you’re going!”

Pretending to be drunk, Victoria slurs her words and says, “Ooh, uh, sorry. Guess I’ve had a lot to drink.”

_ Something about this girl _ , Nathan thinks to himself. He focuses his sights on this girl - no easy task considering the black lights all about the place - and tells her, “You look familiar.”

Intrigued by this statement, Victoria asks, “Do I?”

A silence befalls the two, until Nathan chuckles to himself. “Eh. Must just be me. I’ll go get you another drink. I’ll be right back, Kate. Don’t go anywhere.”

As Nathan marches off to get Kate another glass of water (disregarding the fountain right in front of them), Victoria leads her away to two lounge chairs. She keeps an eye on Kate, seeing that she’s had her fair share of alcohol. And with that eye, she falls in love with her again. Her hair, that nice smell, her petite figure. She asks her, “Are you okay? Do you feel safe?”

Rather confused, Kate tells her, “I’m perfectly fine, thank you. Y’know, parties like these really aren’t my thing.”

Victoria nods her head, saying, “Mhm. Yeah, these parties are all very superficial. Just like ‘hey, let’s go do this because we’re rich! Of course we can!’ God…” Realizing the “sin” she’s just committed, Victoria apologizes rather jokingly, “Sorry to take the Lord’s name in vain and shit, it’s just that this place is getting to me.”

As if summoning him, Nathan reappears with - not one but TWO - glasses of water, which he offers to the two girls sitting in front of him. “Here’s your drinks, ladies.”

Kate takes the drink into her hand and Victoria does the same. Kate tells him, “Thanks”, and he walks away.

Not taking any chances, Victoria blankly tosses her glass behind her chair and rips Kate’s glass out of her hands. “I’ll be taking that. Glug glug glug”, she says as she pours the water out onto the floor.

Kate asks, annoyed as all  ~~ hell ~~ heck, “What was that for?”

“I’m trying to save you.”

“From who, Nathan?”

Victoria’s eyes widen at how ( _ forgive her, Kate _ ) stupid that sounds.  _ Hindsight really is a bitch, huh? _ “Yes, definitely! And also some other assholes. I can tell you their names, but you can’t tell anyone else about it.”

Kate tells her, concerned for this stranger, “I think you need to calm down.”

“Yes. Let’s.” Victoria takes a few seconds to compose herself, realizing that she looks crazy. “First of all, my name’s Victoria Chase. It’s… lovely meeting you again.” She wraps Kate up in a hug, much to her confusion.

“We’ve met before?”

Realizing what she accidentally said, Victoria corrects herself, “Might’ve been another time. That’s beside the point. Nathan Prescott’s involved in a plot to hurt innocent people like you, and a lot of other people in town too.”

A part of Kate wants to believe this Victoria girl’s story, but she tells her, “You have a crazy imagination.”

Victoria shakes her head and tells Kate, “I really wish I was kidding. I wish I could say all of what I’m saying is just a joke, but you HAVE TO believe me, and you have to PROMISE me you won’t tell anyone. Promise that to me.”

Seeing as Victoria has pulled her in pretty closely with a look of desperation and worry on her face, Kate says, “I promise?”

“Nathan and Mr. Jefferson are planning on drugging you.”

With raised eyebrows, Kate tells her, “That sounds-”

“‘Ridiculous’? It does. But that’s how they operate. And you’re their next victim.”

Kate taps at her chin and ponders the severity of the statement. “That doesn’t… not make sense. How would I stop this then?”

Holding Kate’s hands, Victoria tells her, “I need you to come with me, away from this party. We need to get the hell out of here and find Samuel.” “But most of all, I need you to remember the past. Or something like that. Please think about all the good times we’ve had together.”

Kate likes Victoria’s touch and feels her passion, but that isn’t getting her point across. “As nice and… really pretty as you are, I’m not getting anything. I don’t think we’ve met at all.”

“You don’t remember the Prescott revolution?”

Looking around as if to find an answer, Kate says, “No?”

“What about your work at the Helper Shelter? The PissHead concert in Culmination that we went to?”

Kate tells her honestly and kinda sadly, “No. None of that rings a bell.”

“The Beach Party? The Storm Singer? Rachel Amber? Teddy?”  _ Zilch. _ “The road trip we went on.”  _ Nada. _ “Indianapolis. Possum Springs. Independence. These have to ring a bell!”  _ Non. _ “Please, you have to remember something! Anything!”

Kate sighs before telling Victoria, “I don’t. I’m really, truly sorry if you’ve got me mistaken for someone else, but I just don’t know you. I hope you find this person though. They seem nice.”

Answers for this start filling Victoria’s head:  _ the Other Max brainwashed her. She has amnesia. She lost her powers. She’s not in this universe. She’s  _ ~~_ dead _ ~~ _ NO! _ With tears in her eyes, Victoria explains, “They’re the best person I’d ever met. The person who gave me purpose in the world. An actual purpose besides taking soulless pictures of shit or partying until my heart gives out. You’re that fucking person, you know it!” She hops to her feet and a small prick is felt piercing her right ankle. Looking down, she doesn’t see a culprit.

Kate tells Victoria one last time, “I’m not that person you want me to be. Or that person you think I am. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be going to my dorm.” As she starts to walk away, Kate turns back to see Victoria and tells her with a friendly, happy smirk, “Please do be careful. Take care.” Kate offers Victoria a hug, and the two hold it for a few seconds.  _ A few seconds too short no matter how long _ , Victoria feels, as Kate leaves the party. Safe and sound.

With tears spilling down her cheeks, Victoria tells Kate, “Great idea. Just stay away from those two assholes. Please.” Of course, Kate’s already gone, so Victoria remarks to herself angrily, “God, I’m so stupid. D-did I just say that out loud?”

Nathan tells her, “Yeah, you sorta did.”

Slowly, Victoria turns around to face him and hisses angrily, “You.” With her breath intensifying, she adds, “I should kill you right now.”

Not knowing or perhaps not caring why, Nathan asks, “What for?!”

Victoria slowly steps closer to him, ready to spill some blood. “For hurting everyone I ever love. Katie. Rayshel. Chlobe. Macsssss.”

Nathan laughs a little nervously, afraid of what’s next for him. “You don’t seem to be doing too good. We should get you to the hospit-”

“Fuck you selfie. You motherucker.”

Nathan decides to drop the innocent act and go on the offense, yelling back at her, “I’m just trying to-”

“What?! Kill me? Like you kill Rashel?” Victoria grabs him by the throat and falls to the ground. With a fiery rage blazing through her body as she chokes him, she answers, “I’m gonna kill you.”

From the darkness of the party, Mark Jefferson arrives to aid his pupil. He grabs Victoria’s shoulder and tells her, “Get off of him!”

Alerted by his voice, she delivers a violent kick to his groin. As he falls over, Victoria declares, “Dere go yer crowned juice, Jeffyshit!” Victoria knows that she can’t choke Nathan forever. Not with this drug coursing through her veins. She lets go of him and dashes into the crowd, muttering to herself, “Gotta get out, gotta get out!”

Unfortunately, she runs into the path of an older man dressed as a security guard. Aiming his pistol at her, he yells, “Freeze!”

Victoria grabs a plastic knife and screams at him, “Stay back, you old worthless man!”

What she doesn’t see is someone hitting her in the back of the head with a blunt metal object, knocking her down into unconsciousness.

* * *

Victoria wakes up, if only barely. She sits up from the car seat she was sleeping on, her wrists cuffed together, and she knows. She knows and she hears. “Ms. Marsh won’t be joining us, I take it.” It’s Mr. Jefferson’s car, and the man is on the phone. What once was a dream has come true. Shame said dream is really a nightmare.

On the other line, the Other Max responds, “No. She’s off-limits.”

“I was quite ready for our time together, you know”, Jefferson says with a hint of sadness to it.  _ The bastard _ .

“Yes, but… Look at what you have now.” Jefferson looks back at Victoria and scoffs at her. “Have any of your subjects ever been from another universe?”

Jefferson blankly tells her, “I fail to see how that’s relevant to the situation.”

“It means, when you’re done with her, you could kill her. I mean, she’s dead no matter what.”

“That’s not my forte. Of all my crimes, murder seems too… unprofessional.”

Knowing of what Jefferson is capable of when pushed far enough, the Other Max retorts, “Like you’re one to talk… So, you’re gonna take her or not?”

“She doesn’t strike me as someone I’d use.”

The Other Max groans and concedes, “Fine. The Storm Singer wanted her anyways.”

“That crazy old coot?”

The Singer corrects him: “Crazy old coots, Mr. Jefferson. Drop her off at the junkyard. Then, we’ll deal with her.”

“Okay. Be careful out there, gang.” And like that, he hangs up. “You’re up early.”

Victoria asks, surprised oddly enough, “You don’t want me?”

“No. I mean, yeah, the Master goes on and on about how much you sucked up to me - er, your version of me - but just looking at you tells me you’re not my type. I have no interest in you as a subject.”

“Guess I should be honored.” She gets a laugh out of the perverted professor, and feels the sudden urge to vomit. “So, what, you’re just gonna kill me instead?”

“No. I have no problem with you as it stands. Outside of the whole ‘crowned jewels’ bit. My drug has a habit of making people… flighty, to say the least. Getting in the way of my art is a pity, but if I were to kill everyone who did that, where would that land me?”

Flatly, Victoria answers, “Prison.”

“If I were to be caught.” Again, Jefferson chuckles to himself.  _ He’s having a good time! Here’s hoping the Other Max puts a bullet in you too. _ “But, to answer your question, I’m taking you to your… friends… from your world.”

Victoria looks out of the window at the woods surrounding her. The woods leading to the American Rust Junkyard (or, in Jefferson’s line of work, Cemetery). “Why help her? She’s a monster. You can see that, right?”

Jefferson tells her with a shrug, “What am I supposed to do? Kill her?” The car arrives, and the welcoming party of hooded figures stands in a clearing with the Storm Singer front and center. “Here’s your stop anyways.”

The door swings open and Victoria is pulled out of the vehicle by the Singer. As he drags her along the dirt in silence, she asks in shock, “You’re in on this?!”

He glares at her through his helmet and explains, “Why wouldn’t I be? After all, the Master got me out of jail while the world was falling apart. God, you metahuman folk are scary bastards. I feel I owe her my faith.”

“What, is she gonna summon a storm for you?”

The Singer laughs as the two enter the circle, closed by an older woman with a golden scarf wrapped around her neck. “She has much larger plans than that. Not that it would be relevant to tell you, considering I’m gonna kill you here and now.” He drops Victoria and wields his staff. “Good evening, my fellow Children. Tonight, I bring you the original sinner. A messenger from a dead world summoned by the heretics who fight against our Master and her ultimate goal. A sinner who has sullied the world around her. A sinner who, across the vast multiverse, has existed solely to hurt those she claims to love. As she always has, as she always does, and as she always will. Let her suffering serve as a message to the stars.”

Victoria looks up at the Singer as he raises his staff over his head. And strikes her with it.

Again.

And again.

And again.

He strikes with a fury built up by years of delusion, trickery, manipulation and raw misanthropic spite.

Victoria can only hope that the old man will throw out his back, or that Samuel will appear and weird these creepy cultists out with a limerick or two. But she also knows none of that will happen. The Singer will strike as he pleases.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the Singer relents. As Victoria lies on the ground, quivering in pain and mumbling to herself in rage, the Singer lowers himself and asks, “Do you have any last words to share with us, child? Perhaps an apology? A request for penance?”

Victoria has no words. Just a mouthful of blood and a tooth that she spits in his face. She laughs at him, having seen the outcome of the night, and decides to also throw at him a taunt: “Your wife could’ve hit harder than you.”

The Singer wipes away the blood from his helm and says almost peacefully, “Then, give her my regards when you see her in Hell.” The tip of his staff catches aflame, and he aims it at Victoria’s smug face. The peace is gone. All he wants is satisfaction. In a low growl, he rumbles, “Burn.”

Victoria grins at the Singer, having foreseen his immediate future. The one where a random-ass deer charges at him and knocks him to the ground before trampling him a few times.

The random-ass deer carrying who else but random-ass Rachel Amber.

She jumps over to Victoria and lifts her up to her feet. She tells her quickly, “Sorry I’m late, Vic.”

“Rachel…?”

She corrects her, “No no, my name’s Jessie. And there’s only one of me.”  _ Wink _ . She whistles and summons the deer over to the two of them. It jumps through the cultists standing in its way and the two climb aboard. “Let’s get out of here.”

The deer takes off with a running start, crashing right into the gold-scarf cultist and making a beeline for the train. The Singer screams, “After them!”, and the cult charges into battle.

As the deer sprints along the train, Rachel grabs Victoria and jumps into the empty cart in front of them. Gently, she lays her old friend down and asks her, “Are you alright?”

Weakly, Victoria tells her, “No. But I’ll live.”

Seeing the cult, propelled in the air by tornadoes around their feet and hot on their tails, Rachel tells her, “You sit tight and let me handle these guys.” She jumps out of the cart and flies into battle, leaving Victoria on her own to heal up.

Victoria carefully pulls herself into a hiding spot behind some crates and she rests. She breathes in and breathes out, basking in the sliver of moonlight shining on her. She feels at ease, although she knows that’ll only be the case for the next few minutes or so. Maybe less. All that matters is the moment. The one moment that she is sleeping in.

She is suddenly awoken by the crashing of a person into the crates. He screams angrily, “My staff!”

Victoria stands up and sees the Singer laying on the crates. He shakes his head and growls at Rachel as she claims his staff for herself.

She looks at Victoria and tells her, “We’re gonna have to jump.” Victoria quickly hops on top of the Singer’s head, hurting him further, and the two stand at the edge of the cart where a moonlit river awaits them down below. Victoria prepares to jump, but Rachel makes the choice for her and says, “I’ll just fly you down.”

She summons a mini-nado to whisk Victoria away like a chair. She doesn’t quite like it at first, yelling, “Hey!” Still, she acclimates as she gently reaches the earth away from the water.

Rachel prepares to jump too, but she is stopped by the Singer’s words: “You have only delayed the inevitable, child. Our Master will tend to you two sooner or later.”

She shoots back at the downed criminal, “I’d like to see her try.” She turns back to face her escape and jumps off the train, also whisked away in a mini-nado of her own making. Her yells echo in the villain’s face, “Suck my DIIIIIIIICK!”


	6. Hospice in Hotel, Breakfast at Bay, What Else Does Chloe Have To Say?

OCTOBER 5TH, 2013

Sunlight seeps into the hotel room, a sliver resting over Victoria as she sleeps in her bed. Slowly, she wakes up and spots Rachel sitting outside on the phone. She waits for her to finish before asking, “Where are we?”

“Hey, Vic. It’s alright, we’re a few miles out of town. Come, pop a seat.”

She walks over to the seat next to Rachel and looks out at the sun, shimmering on the horizon. “I gotta get outta here, and save Katie.”

Rachel smiles at her and says calmly, “She’s safe. Trust me.”

Still burning fumes from the night before, Victoria asks rather angrily, “How would you know?”

“Samuel said so. Your mission was a success. But it’s not over.”

Victoria quivers anxiously and tells Rachel, “I have to go see her right away. I- I- I have to. It’s important, those bastards are still out there and she knows who they are, and-”

Rachel holds Victoria’s wrist gently and says to her, “Victoria, calm down.”

“I can’t!” Victoria yells as she jumps to her feet, upset by this whole ordeal. “I just almost fucking died! And Kate’ll be next! And Samuel… he knew. He knew this would happen to her. To me! That bastard!”

Rachel rushes to Victoria’s aid and brings her back into their room, telling her softly, “Look, just breathe. In and out. Sit down. Breathe.” Victoria plops herself onto her bed and crosses her arms, trying not to explode in rage and trying to calm down. It’s working. “Look, we’re at the Three Seals Motel just outside of town. Plus, I have the Storm Singer’s staff with me, so we can get back to town in a jiffy… and we will. I’m starving, and I know you are too.”

Victoria starts to cool down, realizing that she’s acting out of line. “Sorry”, she says weakly. She sits back up and looks around at the room. She asks Rachel, “How did all of this start?”

“Like, world history speaking? Talking about Samuel?”

Victoria shakes her head and asks, “No, I mean, how did we end up here? Shit’s still a blur and no one’s made much sense of it. Not Clarissa, not Danny, not Samuel. No one.”

Taking a heavy breath, Rachel tells Victoria the truth: “It was Christmas Day, as you know. We were fighting Bedlam, doing whatever we could to take him down. Meanwhile, I was tasked with keeping his wormhole watch away from him. He stole it from Teddy, as you may have heard. I flew to Culmination, but Bedlam followed me there. And he laid waste to the city. I then flew to Beaver Creek. Same shit. It’s like he was spreading throughout the state. Luckily, reinforcements arrived and we saved a lot of people from both cities. Still, we couldn’t save everyone, and I couldn’t stop that tattoo bastard from reclaiming the wormhole watch. He took it back to Arcadia Bay just as Kate chopped his head off.” Rachel looks at Victoria, seeing a smile form on her face in admiration of her wife’s heroics. Still, that’s not how the story ends, so she regrettably continues: “He used it to open a black hole. God knows how or why, I figure he just wanted to kill as many people as he could by the end of the night. I know I was sucked in. You too. Same with Chloe, Max, Kate, and a whole bunch of the town… or what’s left of it.”

“You think there’s a chance we can still save it? At least, like, some of it?”

Rachel tells her, “I doubt it but if the two of us are here, then it’s not out of the question.”

“As long as we get our friends back, then this shit’ll be a whole lot easier. Plus, I miss everyone. What’s the plan for when we get back to Arcadia Bay?”

Rachel smirks as her stomach rumbles, “Breakfast.” She looks up at the clock behind Victoria and quickly realizes that’s not an option anymore. “Er, brunch.”

* * *

A yawn escapes from Chloe’s mouth as she ties up her hair and adjusts her apron. Seeing her tired eyes, Joyce asks, “Late start, honey?”

“Sorry, Mom. Couldn’t sleep too well.”

“Your dreams were getting in the way again?”

Chloe nods her head, “Crazy as it sounds, yeah. Plus, that one girl who came around the other day. I think I knew her. Like, not just in a dream, but I REALLY knew her. Like we were friends from the past. I dunno.”

With her daughter clearly confused at whatever’s happening to her, Joyce offers her a nice, warm hug. “Don’t worry, baby, everything’s okay. It’s just how dreams are. You see things you know, and you see things you don’t know. All that matters is that we’re here today.” She plants a soft kiss on her forehead and grabs a couple plates of food for the patrons awaiting them.

Chloe laughs, happy to be where she is. “Right. Sorry.”

“It’s okay, no need to apologize. Let’s just get to feeding these people.” Joyce heads out into the restaurant with food while Chloe grabs her notepad and walks up to the two patrons sitting by the door, their faces obscured by menus.

“Good afternoon, what would you like to get?”

One of the customers, the girl from yesterday, pulls down her menu and declares snidely, “Kari Price! Hey, you, how’s it going?” Her hair’s a mess, her face is battered, she’s missing a tooth, and her cashmere sweater has dirt and cuts all over.

Chloe sighs and corrects her, “My name’s Chloe.”

Victoria looks at Rachel and asks, “That’s what I said, right?”

She softly falls into the menu before annoyedly asking Victoria, “You actually coined ‘Kari Price’? Like, that was you.”

“Yes, I did,  _ Jessie Amber _ .” The two laugh with each other while Chloe rolls her eyes.

“Look, I’m just trying to work. What would you like to order?”

Quickly, Victoria tries to come up with something witty and maybe a little mean: “How about I order… uh… order a…” Chloe focuses intently on her, much to Victoria’s embarrassment. “Scrambled eggs and a milkshake?”

Rachel jumps in and adds, “Look, what my friend here is trying to say is that she knows you. Like, really knows you. She knows how much you don’t like this place, perfect as it may be. She knows you miss Max and want her back. She knows you’re our friend.”

Chloe crosses her arms and explains, “And I- know her- Look, do you have to be escorted off the premises?”

Rachel drops her menu and grabs Chloe’s shoulder. “Chloe, c’mon, it’s me! You know me! I’m Rachel Amber and you’re Chloe Price! We were the baddest bitches in the Bay, right? You know that! Snap out of it!”

Chloe chuckles in a manner conveying both condescension and comprehension.“That sounds- hella- ridiculous.”

Victoria remarks, “Is it as ridiculous as using that word?”

She raises her arms and tells the two, “I mean, I kinda- love using that word, thank you. What am I- still doing here? We need to get back to work!”

Joyce rushes over and asks, “Chloe, sweetie, what’s happening? Is everything alright?”

Clutching at her temple, she tells her mother, “I’m fine, Mom, it’s just that- I have no fuckin’ idea what’s going!”

“I should get you home, William will take care of you.”

Chloe freezes upon hearing that statement. She asks, eyes widen in amazement, “Dad’s alive?”

“Yes, of course he is.”

Looking at the two patrons and smiling at them, Chloe says, “Okay. Let’s go home real quick.” As the two prepare to leave, Chloe adds, “And you two are coming with us.”

Having never seen those two women before, Joyce asks, “Chloe, are you sure about that?”

“I’m hella sure about it.”

* * *

Sitting up front, Chloe looks out at the Bay. It’s so similar, yet so different from what she knew twice before. Still, she’s herself again. Another day, another alternate universe. She closes her eyes and lets the Cocteau Twins song Joyce has put on take her away from here. For now anyways.

“ _ I'm not real and I deny, _

_ I won't heal unless I cry, _

_ I can't grieve, so I won't grow, _

_ I won't heal 'til I let it go _ ”

Seeing that Victoria too is enthralled by the music, Rachel asks the obvious: “Chloe, you’re… our Chloe, right?”

“Damn right I am. Sorry about the bad language, Mom.”

Joyce shrugs it off, clearly weirded out by the whole situation. She instead asks Chloe, “How do you know these two girls?”

“I met ‘em at Blackwell. Rachel’s a wild child if you ask me, and Victoria’s… a mean girl. But not a bad one.”

Victoria lets a smile creep up onto her face and says, “Shucks.”

Chloe looks at her Mom and asks, “What’s Dad up to today?”

“Just working around the house as usual.”

“Awesome-sauce.”

That smile Victoria had a few seconds prior fades as she shakes her head, dying inside at that very word. “Wow. Why? Why are you like this?”

“It’s how I am, gurl.”

Happy to have her back, Victoria tells her, “Again, you’re not wrong. Right on the dot.”

After a few more minutes of driving, Joyce brings the girls back to Price Household. Chloe leads them inside as her mother heads back to work swiftly.

Leading her friends into the home, William looks over from the couch as he sits with his working equipment at his side. He waves to Chloe and rises to his feet. “Hey, sweetie! Early day in, huh?” Without hesitation, she runs up to her Dad and wraps him up in a great big bear hug. “Easy, Supergirl! I’m only human!” He looks over at the two strangers in his house and asks his daughter, “Now, who are these young ladies?”

Rachel waves at him with a smile on her face. “Rachel Amber.”

Victoria waves too and walks over to shake his hand, “Victoria Chase. Lovely meeting you, Mr. Price.”

William playfully scoffs and corrects her, “Oh, that’s my dad’s name. You can all call me William.” He looks at her - the wounds on her body, the cuts on her sweater, the holes in her tights, and of course her missing shoe - and asks in worry, “You alright?”

Victoria shrugs it off and tells him, “I’m fine. But thank you for the concern.”

Chloe starts heading upstairs and the two girls follow her. “We’ll be in my room, just call us if you need anything.”

William salutes her and adds, “Aye aye, Captain!”

While Victoria and Rachel wait in her room, Chloe looks around for something to change up her look. Unfortunately, nothing of use (or at least, not to her current plans). She reports back to her friends. “So no hair dye.”

Victoria tells her with an impressed smirk, “Your hair looks beautiful all grown out like that. Still, maybe you can try a new color when you get the chance?”

Chloe strokes at her hair, blushing as she does so. “I’ve been thinking about that. Maybe when we get home.”

Victoria clears her throat and declares, “Let’s get to business. You remember what happened, right? You know you’re… you, right?”

Chloe nods her head and tells her, “Of course. Still, it’s weird. I have all these memories. Memories of hanging out with Steph and Mikey, actually graduating from Blackwell… my Dad being alive. My ‘old’ Max told me about how she saved him, but got me stuck in a wheelchair in doing so.” She strokes her chin and asks aloud, “Why wouldn’t this be the case here?”

Rachel answers, “Probably some shit the Other Max has planned.”

Chloe groans angrily. “Oh my god, her? She’s behind this?”

Victoria adds, “Definitely. And according to Clarissa and her Sunken pals, she wants to ‘destroy all life forever’.”

“That sounds bad. Obviously, we’ve gotta stop her. But without Max and Kate, how?”

Victoria tells her, “I could go see Katie. And maybe Max. But also, uh, Rachel?” She looks over to Rachel as she stands up and looks out the window… and opens it.

“I’ve been working with an odd group of people. Mind the window.”

Minding the window, the girls see a blue jay bird fly into the room and take a seat by Chloe’s dresser. Victoria exclaims in shock, “The hell?”

Rachel walks over to the bird and gently pets its head. “This is Jared.”

Looking at the girls, Jared jeers, “MREEE! MREEE!”

Victoria slowly turns to Rachel with an annoyed look on her face. “I don’t speak ‘blue jay’, can you translate for Mordecai here?”

Rachel tells them, “He said he’s happy to meet you both.”

“MREEE!”

“He’s a part of the plot to stop the Other Max, and he brings a message from Samuel. He wants us to head to the back of the Two Whales Diner so we can meet with Sunshine Ray.”

Chloe looks around and asks, “Who?”

“MREEE!”

“It’s said she went missing back in the 70s, but she really never left. Like me. Kinda. In a not-as-dark sorta way. She lives behind the Two Whales Diner now. It’s sad, but she’s a lovely, lovely person.”

Chloe plants her face in her hands and tiredly says, “Looks like it’s back to Two Whales. Yipee.”

Victoria chimes in, “Rather, back to the BACK of Two Whales, huh?”

The three girls laugh, and even Jared joins in. Chloe tells her, “Oh, that was actually kinda funny, Vic.”

Shrugging her shoulders, she tells her, “I try my hand sometimes. Do you think your Dad will bring us over? He didn’t seem too busy.”

“I wouldn’t want to get in his way. Besides, that’s not, y’know, my dad. Like he is, but he isn’t. Plus, Mom has the car.” Chloe looks out the window, thinking of this world. “We’re not staying in this universe. We’re gonna get home. All of us.”

Victoria asks, “No one else got sucked into the black hole?”

Chloe lets out a chuckle. “No. Max actually made sure of that. She knew what was gonna happen. She hated that it had to happen, but if we were to get the best ending possible, we needed to lose just this once. So, before the big fight, she gave everyone photographs of a monastery to hang onto. And when the black hole came around, she sent everyone on the field into the photograph, and to safety.”

“Holy shit. That sounds crazy.” Victoria doesn’t quite like the implications as she answers, but she understands. Perhaps because Chloe is explaining, and she isn’t a time goddess one bad day away from losing touch with humanity.

Chloe snarkily responds to Victoria, “Well, what else is new?”

“But why didn’t she pick you guys up?”

Chloe points out the window and tells her, “Maybe this is why. We’ll save the world. Or, well, more than just the world. And also… my Dad is here.” She eyes her door and asks, “Before we head back to Two Whales, can I have a few minutes to talk to my Dad please?”

Victoria tells her with a pat on the shoulder, “Of course, Chloe.”

The three head downstairs as Jared flies out the window into the world ahead. As Rachel and Victoria go ahead and exit, Chloe looks over to her father and tells him, “Hey, Dad. I’m gonna be heading out with my friends for… a while.”

William walks over and asks, “How long?”

Chloe scratches at the back of her head, anxious of how to answer this. “I dunno. I don’t know how to say this, I really don’t. But… I don’t feel like I belong in this town. And I don’t think I’ll be coming back for a while.”

Chloe is held by her father in a tight hug. “What makes you say that?”

“With these two, I’ve found people who I can trust with my life. People who know me and can reach out to me. Them… and Max. And you guys, obviously, I really don’t mean to say that you and Mom weren’t the greatest people who have ever lived.” She sighs, holding back sobs that she can’t help. “I don’t want to leave you and Mom, I love you both very much.”

“And we love you too, Chloe.” William plants a kiss on his daughter’s forehead, clearly sad but not upset. “I get it. Grandpa Price was the same, y’know. He had to get out into the world and find himself. But he had to go his way. And, quite frankly, look where his way got us. Me and Joyce, us and you. You and your friends. Just… promise to write back when you can. And stay away from those shifty cult types, you hear?”

Chloe nods her head and tells him, “Of course, Dad. Don’t you worry. Ever. Please.” William lets go of his daughter and she proceeds to walk out the door. She looks back and tells him, “Take care of each other.”

“Likewise, girl. And before you go, don’t forget about your college fund.” He walks over to the kitchen to grab the old jar of cash.

“No, it’s okay. You guys keep it. Trust me. And my friends.” Chloe opens the door. It still hurts, this being her Dad or not. “Goodbye, Dad. I love you.” She walks out into the world.

And doesn’t turn back.

The trio march along to the Two Whales, comforting Chloe all the way. She doesn’t cry, as this isn’t a sad moment for her. It’s a fulfilling one. One she was robbed of all those years ago.

The three walk to the back of the diner, up to the old crates and pallets stored outside. Sitting by them is an old homeless lady with a story to tell. A story of their fate. “Hiya, girls. Jared said you’d be comin’.” She rises to her feet and opens up a doorway in the brick wall behind her. A bright doorway to a world of weird - colors, shapes, pathways and more. She looks at the girls, her smile widening, and tells them, “Come along. We ain’t got all day.”


	7. Power Point Presentation

OCTOBNUARY πTH, YICK

As clouds flutter over a bright white sky, the nude meditator Newman D. Schwartz practices yoga. He feels the wind on his body… and that is all that will be said about that.

As he does his thing, he hears in the wind an alarm from his iPhone. He knows it; the signal that Sunshine has returned. As she has, as she does, as she must, with their womanly warriors of Universe-227. He taps a button and listens to her message: “They are here… now.”

In a hurry, he scurries to the gates of this realm and sees Sunshine walk in. Standing behind her is Victoria, Chloe and Rachel. He waves to them and says, “Greetings.” Of course, not wanting to see his sightly stuff, Victoria and Chloe avert their eyes behind their hands. He asks, “What is the matter?”

Not taking the chance to look at him in his current state, Victoria asks in embarrassment, “Are your clothes, like, invisible?”

Samuel comes forward and explains, “Please forgive Mr. Schwartz. C’est sa nature to be nude.”

“I aim not to be lewd, Mrs. Chase.”

Victoria hurriedly nods her head and uncovers her eyes, looking at his face. “Sorry. I’ll try to have an… open mind.” As Schwartz summons his sword and covers himself with it, Victoria asks, “So, Sunshine, what is this place?”

“It’s a section of the Transect enraptured in flux. It is both its future and its past. Many centuries from now, a crisis will unfold that will consume the multiverse and revive it anew. It is merely in the natural order of things for it to happen.”

Slightly freaked out by the answer, Victoria sheepishly says, “Okay, thanks. Uh, let’s just forget I asked.” Victoria turns her attention to Samuel and furrows her brow. “Hey. You.”

With a smirk creeping up on his face, he waves at her softly and remarks, “I see you survived your encounter with the Children of Nature’s Winds.”

“I sure did.” Victoria says with a growl in her raised voice. “Care to explain why I had to deal with them in the first place?”

“You must have learned from Max’s methodology. To ensure the best possible outcome, one must endure suffering in some capacity.”

Looking down at her clothes, Victoria jokes, “Guess I passed with shooting stars, hm?”

“You did. After all, you also have to beat the odds to ensure the best possible outcome.” Walking over to her, Samuel adds with a pat on her shoulder, “Congratulations.”

Glaring at the girls with the utmost seriousness, Newman informs them, “We summoned you here to inform you of the next step in stopping the Other Max’s plot. We’re here to tell you what she has been planning. Follow us.” He turns around and ushers the girls to the team’s lair.

As they follow, Rachel asks her friends of the obvious regarding the glint on Newman’s gluteus, “Why is his butt so shiny?”

Victoria tells her, resigned, “As long as I can’t see it… I can live with that.”

The group walks through this sect of the Transect. Of course, things are similar; the ever present white void, the strangeness. But the strangeness is stranger now. What was once barren is now populated, the local flora and fauna of twelve alternate timelines flourish across the wastelands. Buildings with shapes that are nigh indescribable and highly unsafe by most official standards. Within a cathedral built on a foundation of hopes and dreams, the group is awaited.

Having opened up a powerpoint presentation, Samuel informs the girls as they sit in comfy rolling chairs on the task at hand: “As you know, we exist in a multiverse: a space of many universes with alternate paths, alternate choices, alternate lives. Victoria, your universe has been designated Universe-227. The world where the OmniMax chose to save Arcadia Bay by way of letting Chloe die. This universe has been acting as a vessel for her past intentions ever since 2008.”

Victoria asks “What happened in 2008?”

Chloe explains, “She tried to save my dad in that timeline too. It did what it did. Until it didn’t.”

Although not trying, Chloe’s answer leaves Victoria saddened. She places a hand on her shoulder and says heartfully, “Oh, Chloe, I’m sorry.”

She plants a hand on her hers and tells her with a smile, “It’s okay, Vic. I’m better about it now.” She looks over at Samuel and says, “Continue”

“Ah, speaking of you, your universe is adjacent to that one; dubbed Universe-241, Arcadia Bay was destroyed by a tornado, believed to have been created by Bedlam. Thousands were dead, and the Storm Singer created his cult in its ashes. Another set of circumstances unrelated to these events led to Daniel Diaz, alone in Mexico, to become the vigilante known as the Superwolf.”

He continues, “Rachel’s universe - Universe-145 - diverged at an earlier point. She escaped the clutches of Mr. Jefferson’s Dark Room, killing him and Nathan Prescott in the process, before vanishing into U-227. As a result, things changed. No Nathan Prescott means no assault against Kate Marsh, no ‘Rachel in the Dark Room’ means no Blackwell shooting, means a whole new reality created.”

Samuel continues his powerpoint with the biggest point. The main point. “All of these universes were forged from one reality.”

Victoria asks with an eyebrow raised, “Universe, what, One?”

He chuckles at her lack of knowledge. “No, not Universe-1. Not even a hypothetical Universe-0. It was formed, like all alternate realities, from an idea. A ‘what if’ scenario. A world we have taken to calling the What-If-iverse. A world just like ours, but not. A world crafted by five Frenchmen, our forefathers: Koch, Barbet, Baghadoust, Divine and Cano. This What-If-iverse is the progenitor of our multiverse as we know it.”

Victoria raises her hand and asks, “Wait, so just because some French guys… made a universe, for whatever reason, the multiverse was born?”

“Our multiverse exists in a sea of multiverses known as the omniverse. We are but a small branch on the ever-growing Tree of Life.”

Victoria laughs before confessing, “Well, I needed that existential punch. So the Other Max’s plan is to destroy a couple universes? Why, to spite us?”

“Her reasoning is unclear, but her intentions are. The reason we tell you all this - your home universes, the multiverse, and the What-If-iverse - is because she intends on heading into the What-if-iverse. Not to change it, but to end it.”

Victoria asks, her voice quivering with fear, “You mean…”

“That’s right. She plans on creating a domino effect that will end our multiverse.”

Slumping back in her chair, Victoria reflects on the magnitude of this statement. Filled with a type of anger she hasn’t felt before in her life, she asks, “Is she fucking insane?”

Chloe explains, “She’s like that. I met her once in a nightmare. I think. She’s a bitch.”

Victoria asks, expecting a certain answer, “Like me?”

Shaking her head, Chloe tells her, “No.”

Rachel elaborates, “She is a materialized depression. Every Max, powers or no powers, has an Other, whether she knows it or not. They have, they do, and they will. A voice in the back of her head; whispering cruelties into her brain, manifesting dark thoughts and actions, giving in to an animal inhibition.” Grabbing Samuel’s remote, she continues the powerpoint to a new frame. One depicting the Other Max’s alleged crimes. “You remember when she killed twenty Agency soldiers? Well, she’s capable. Of so. Much. Worse.”

**CRIMES OF THE OTHER MAX**

**(a.k.a. Maxine Caulfield, Ghost Max, Nightmare Max, Saint Maximillian, Super-Max, the Noir Angel, Morpho, Marsha Jefferson, Maxine Prescott, the Time Traveller, the Fifth Queen of Hell)**

_Abuse of Supernatural Powers, Assault, Criminal Conspiracy, Human Trafficking, Jaywalking, Loitering, Sexual Assault, Crimes Against Humanity, Weapons Manufacturing, Impersonation of a Political Official, Violations of the Geneva Convention, Breaking and Entering, Kidnapping, Tax Evasion_

“And that’s just the recorded cases from all sightings across the multiverse. Among those are the ones you’ve witnessed. I’m sure you’re familiar with her conspiracy in U-227.”

Pale with fear, Victoria asks, “She was behind all of this shit? With, like, the Enforcers and Bedlam?”

Samuel nods his head as Rachel goes over to her friends and hands Victoria a glass of water. “In a sense. The OmniMax, your Max, Bedlam, Dolly, Dr. Court, the Storm Singer, and so many more unknowingly created circumstances of which this Other Max would manifest into a physical form. A perfect storm. They couldn’t have known if she’d wanted them to.”

Coming to the realization, Chloe states, “She played them all like a fiddle. And that was just warmup.”

Victoria hops to her feet and declares, shakily, “We need to stop her, right now. She can’t get away with anything else.”

With the presentation at its end, Sunshine answers, “Yes. But you don’t know everything. We don’t know everything. And yet, you do.”

“What are you talking about?”

Schwartz asks from across the room, “You have the ability to see the future, correct?”

She slowly nods her head. “It’s not perfect. I can see points in my future, yes, but I can also see alternate timelines. And points in my present, too. I can be in them.”

The mystery people of the Transect look at her, questioning their next plan of action. Quietly, they huddle and converse. There is discourse and bargaining, but a conclusion is made by Samuel: “It’ll do.” He walks over to Victoria with an empty vial in one hand and a needle in the other. As she eyes the needle tensely, he explains to her“, We must warn you that this process will require your powers. We’ll be taking them from you.”

“Permanently?” He nods his head with a look as seriously as hers. She thinks back on all the times they’ve saved her: _Let’s see… there was that time with the Storm Singer. Uh, I dodged another can of paint that other time. Me and Katie avoided spoilers for Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Wow, is that really it?_ “Well, it’s not like I ever wanted them. What will you find out with them?”

As Sunshine prepares the contraption, she explains to her, “The location of the Other Max, what her route to the What-If-iverse will be, what her associates have planned, what her plan is upon reaching the What-If-iverse. All of that and more.”

Shrugging her shoulders, Victoria sighs and tells her, “Fuck it, let’s party.” She holds out her arm and Sunshine injects the needle into her arm.

~~~

The future bleeds into the present as Blackwell Academy burns. A man of cyclones stands at the scene with a fire in his eyes and his family aiding him.

~~~

Victoria sits alone in the Chase Space, remembering the Storm from Nowhere that killed Arcadia Bay. She drinks the demon from a bottle, accepting that she is who she was back then. There was no growth. David saved her for no reason.

~~~

Banging on glass, Max Caulfield begs for freedom. Behind the glass, Jefferson observes her struggle, the lighthouse being her beacon in the darkness of his bunker. He sets her down on the table and flicks the glass, summoning snowfall to assail her. She knows though, that she will be free in no time.

~~~

A knight from Arcadia Bay’s past begins his assault on Neo-Arcadia. His minions descend from the sky, armed for war with the town’s new Queens. He doesn’t wish to shed innocent blood but those pesky Blackwell shits have stepped on his toes for the last time.

~~~

Standing at the edge of everything, the Other Max glares at her through the camera helmet on her head, knowing that this is everything her “life” has been building up to. She wagers that all the other Other Maxes would be creaming their jeans if they could be where she was. But it’s not like it would matter. Nothing matters.

The Other Max turns to Victoria with surprised eyes. She answers, “Oh, it's you. You're early!” She cackles and asks, “How’s it look, seeing all that is to come?”

Wishing to perhaps get some sort of understanding out of this maniac, Victoria asks, “Why? Why do all of this?”

“Because I don’t care.” She walks over to Victoria, frozen in this moment (or lack thereof). “You think I’m a person? Because I’m not. Under this… fleshy husk, I’m so much more. Rachel said it best. I’m depression. I’m gonna be what ends the world. It’s nothing personal… Except for you.” She removes her helmet and shows her her face. Her freckled face with soft cheeks and cold, dead eyes. “I’ve told you before that I hate you. Our… relationship is a constant all across time and space. You hate me, I hate you, sometimes we fight and sometimes we fuck. And sometimes we both… I like when we both.”

Disregarding her later comments, Victoria informs her, “I don’t hate Max. Not anymore.”

The Other Max cackles once more, almost hacking up blood if she could. Wiping away a blackened tear, she answers, “You’ll see. Just like you’ll see that you are a constant too. You think you’re the hero, and that may be so, but it won’t change who you were, who you are, and who you will be: a worthless, ugly, vile… fucking whore who deserves a thousand deaths. Who deserves to die alone and unloved in her parents’ hollow gallery. Who deserves to pay for what she did to Kate Marsh. You might as well have killed her.” Victoria pulls herself out of the quantum frost and delivers a punch across the Other Max’s face. Spitting out black blood, she remarks to her rival with a grin, “I’ll let you have that.”

Suddenly, a voice from beyond speaks: “We’ve got a trace on their location, Victoria. We’re pulling you out.” It’s Sunshine, happy… and petrified.

Chloe explains aloud just why she would feel that way: “Blackwell and… the Dark Room. Fuck!”

Waving her hands giddily, the Other Max says, “Ding ding ding.”

Victoria tosses herself onto the villainess, screaming into her face, “What are you planning?!”

Glancing aside with joy in her voice, she explains, “Oh, just tying up loose ends before the end, just as YOU’LL be doing soon! I’ll see you in a bit. Me and the Children. But first, I have to take care of my plant. Au revoir.” With a kick to her chest, Victoria is sent flying back into the present, leaving the Other Max to her own devices (whatever they may be).

~~~

Opening her eyes, Victoria screams, “Fuuuuuck! Nonono, we have to get out of here!”

Chloe delivers the order with Rachel at her side, “You’ll take Blackwell and get Kate to safety. We’ll go to the Dark Room.”

Knowing of their unfortunate pasts with Jefferson and the Dark Room, Victoria asks, “Are you sure?”

Rachel lets out a guffaw, answering snarkily, “Girl, you’re looking at the Rachel who killed her Jefferson and Nathan. We’ll be fine.” She gives Victoria a thumbs up and Victoria shoots her one back.

“And speaking of Nathan…” Samuel steps over to Victoria and plants a metal object in her hand. “We’ll have to be making some aggressive changes to the timeline.” Victoria looks at the object. She sees a gun. The same one Prescott would use to kill his Chloe in her home timeline. “You have to do it. You have to kill Nathan Prescott.”

A part of Victoria doesn’t want to do that. But that part, in its minuscule nature, can _go fuck itselfie_. Nathan Prescott has to die. And he will. With a wide smile on her face, rooted in well-deserved revenge, Victoria declares, “I’ll do it… just… what happened to Katie?”

She looks to her friends. And they can’t answer. Not because they don’t want to, but because they want to protect Victoria from the truth. Angrily, she asks again, “What happened to her?”

“WHAT HAPPENED TO KATIE?!” And suddenly… it hits her.

She knows what happened to Kate Marsh.

She collapses to her knees and sobs as Chloe and Rachel rush to her aid, hugging her as hard as they can. She can't be alone. But what more can they do? Bring Kate back?


	8. What Happened to Katie Marsh

DECEMBER 25TH, 2014

Universe-227

The skies of Arcadia Bay glow blood red, burning over the Christmas night sky. Looming over the town is the one-armed tattoo demon Bedlam: the self-proclaimed Lord of Death.

“ **ALL WILL DIE AT THE HANDS OF BEDLAM!** ”

Focused on what is ahead of him instead of behind him, he fails to notice that giant light ship aimed straight at his head. When he turns around, it is too late as it slams right into him.

The ship lands, gently maneuvered by one Kate Marsh. She opens the bay doors, unleashing an army of prisoners, soldiers, police officers, Hawt Dawg Men and friends. They are led by her wife, Victoria Chase. Over some sort of PA system onboard, Kate declares gloriously, “Give him hell!”

Scooping Victoria up into her arms, Kate flies over a crowd of zombies summoned by Bedlam in search of her friends. She finds them and gives them back up with her light-based abilities. Victoria, on the other hand, prefers her grenade launcher and assault rifle as she non-lethally kills zombies with ease.

Having spotted them, Chloe waves and happily asks, “Hey, guys! How was Independence?”

Victoria shrugs and explains, “It was terrible. But we got out of there, and we made friends!”

Fighting past the crowd of zombies are the reformed Enforcers - Elmer and Lord Laundry - as well as the Agency’s Doctor Court and the Jumper… _Friends? Really, Vic?_ Chloe asks herself in annoyance.

Seeing the ire in her face, Victoria quickly explains, “Dolly was mind controlling them.”

Boredly, she responds, “Uh huh.” Still, no time to debate, “No time to lose, let’s save the day!”

Kate flies over to Bedlam’s face and hovers over him with arms crossed.

“ **AH, IT IS YOU. WE MEET AG-** ”

Not having any time for his grand posturing, Kate holds up one of her hands and fires a laser across his face, tearing into his skull… which is his face.

Clutching the wound, Bedlam screams:

“ **MY FACE!** ”

Back on the ground, Max turns to Victoria and tells her firmly, “Victoria, you take care of Damon Merrick’s head.”

“His what?”

“He’s creating the zombies. Stop him. He’s at the graveyard.”

Confused but accepting of the current situation, Victoria shrugs and marches off to the cemetery. Past the deformed dead and allies of all shapes and sizes, she reaches her destination and finds his head… It’s dead. And the Other Max is standing beside it.

Aiming her rifle at the villainess, Victoria asks, “What are you doing here?”

“Just picking you up. You’re needed elsewhen.”

Out of the blue, a blunt force strikes Victoria in the back of the head, knocking her to the ground. She aims her rifle at the Other Max but it is taken away by some unknown force.

Hopelessly, she begs to the heavens, “Katie, help m-”

With a swift kick to the face from the Other Max, she’s out like a light. 

Back in town, Bedlam begs further as Kate continues tearing him apart with her bright bare hands:

“ **GET… OFF OF… Get off** of me, you bitch!”

As he senses his time approaching, he also sees his undead army collapsing. Slowly, one by one, they drop dead once again.

And as his army did, he falls too. All it would take is one more hit to kill him now in his shrunken state.

Looming over him, Max tells him, “You’re done, Bedlam.”

He glares at her and questions aloud, “And I take it Dolly failed in her mission.” Kate walks over and nods at him. “Then, I suppose this is it.”

“Yes. That’s why I said ‘you’re done’.”

Bedlam shakes his head as he reaches into the dirt beneath him. “No, no. That’s not why.” Pulling out Teddy’s wormhole watch, he tells her, “This is.”

The girls rush him but it is too late. He chooses not to go back in time. Rather, he chooses to go beyond the limits of the device.

He chooses to create a black hole.

What was left of Arcadia Bay slowly begins to be consumed by the black hole.

Max, Chloe and Kate hang on to objects around them, trying desperately to get away from the vortex. “Max, what do we do now?”

Sighing once more, Max declares, “It’s time.” She snaps her fingers and their many allies blip out of the combat area to places unknown. Hopefully places away from the Bay. She looks to her old friend and knows what moment this is. It’s time for her to sacrifice herself for the sake of the world. “I’m sorry, Kate.”

Also knowing the truth and gravity of the situation, she hugs Max and tells her, “It’s okay! Just keep Victoria safe!”

Driving a car into the black hole, the Other Max states, “No probleeeeem!”

Max sighs at the sight of her Other (with Victoria as her captive). “That bitch. Hold on, Vic, I’m coming!” And without looking back, she rushes into the black hole too.

Chloe screams out, “Max!”, before being sucked into the vortex as well. Seeing her friends fall into this black hole, Rachel manifests from the air around the area and makes haste after them.

“Chloe, Rachel!” Kate groans, upset at her status as the sole survivor of her friend circle (as far as she knows, anyways).

Shooting light into the black hole, she sees it shrink. Slowly but surely. Unfortunately, “slowly” is not the optimal word at this time. Kate fires everything she has into the black hole, dueling light against the dark. She has to save the world.

Speaking to herself as she pushes the upper limits of her superpowers, Kate mutters, “Eye on the ball, keep the eye on the ball.”

The damn thing just keeps growing. Sure, she’s fighting it very well, but it won’t shut down like this.

The sacrifice _has_ to happen. For Victoria. For her parents and sisters. For their many friends. For the people of the world. And for the future.

Kate summons the power within herself, and the light all around her as the red clouds dissipate, to crush the black hole.

It’s shrinking more and more. It won’t keep going forever. And neither can she. But that won’t stop her.

She feels her body slipping away as the Bay becomes more barren. Nothing left for the black hole to feed on… Except all she has left.

With one final burst, Kate fires moonlight, sunlight, artificial light and everything in between that she can get her hands on, aimed entirely at the hole…

Finally, it shuts close. To the naked eye, it would appear that nothing was there.

Kate did it. She saved the world.

She collapses to her knees, her body withering away with every second.

_Victoria will be proud_ . _Victoria will be safe and sound. She will live on. She will survive. She better_. That was the promise she made to Max if she did this. Now, it’s up to Max to fill her end of the bargain.

Kate smiles upon the world one last time before her body fizzles and fades into the Christmas air.


	9. Fix-it Forgiveness Fest

OCTOBER 5TH, 2013

Universe-None

TEXT FROM MAXINE CAULFIELD

_Hey, Nate. It’s Max._

_Meet me in the girls’ bathroom on campus._

_We need to talk._

_Urgently._

Stepping into the bathroom, Nathan looks around cautiously. A part of him fears an ambush of some sort ( _perhaps he still owes Damon some money_ ), but he knows no one is stupid enough to try and punk a Prescott. He asks, “Max?” He walks over to a trash can and places it in front of the door. “Max, it’s me. Nate.”

Behind him, Victoria hops out of a stall and tells him, “I unfortunately know you well, fucker.”

Spinning around, he spots her and the gun aimed at his face. “What the fuck?”

“Stay there. Try anything and I blow your brains out.” Making sure no one is in the bathroom with her as she steps around Nathan, Victoria asks of him, “You said you remember me. How?” Nathan’s confusion angers her, provoking her to yell in his face, “HOW?”

The quivering boy answers, “I saw you in a dream. We were friends. Like siblings.”

Victoria knows that that was once true. The nights they’d spend partying, the Vortex Club road trips, all the help they gave each other on classwork. She hates that that was her past. She would burn it if she could. “Yeah? Yeah. That’s right. So what the fuck is wrong with you?”

Already unstable, Nathan answers with tears in his eyes, “My dad. And Jefferson. And Max. I had to impress them all. I had to be… good for them all.”

“I know.” Victoria says with her eyes focused intently on her mission. “We were like siblings. But that was before you did what you did to Katie. And Rachel. And Chloe. And Max. I don’t know if you’ve ever hurt me. I’m sure you did. I know you planned it with Jeffershit.” As she takes a few steps closer, she continues, “But don’t worry, I know how to make things right.” She lowers her gun and orders him, “Close your eyes, and I’ll take you to the happy dream.” He doesn’t comply, much to her annoyance. With her free hand, she smacks him upside the head and demands once more, “Close them.”

He closes his eyes. “I’m scared.”

_BANG._ “I’m not.” As Nathan falls to the floor, a bloody hole in his chest, Victoria looms over him. She can’t quite believe she did that, but goddamn does it feel right. She pulls out her phone and dials up Samuel. “He’s dead.”

“Good, go now while we hold off Mr. Madsen.” Hastily, she jogs out of the bathroom to her next destination: the Prescott Dorms.

* * *

Waltzing about the Dark Room, Jefferson pays no mind to the world around him. Sure, his plot is falling apart thanks to the arrival of his associates but, as the Other Max reassured him, “ _he doesn’t have time to sweat the little things_ ”. Suddenly, a tiny little yawn pierces his ears. He looks to the source of it and asks, “You seem bored, Miss Caulfield. Is something the matter?”

The mini Max Caulfield, trapped in an Arcadia Bay souvenir snowglobe, tells him with her arms crossed, “I’m just biding my time. Soon, I’ll be free.”

Jefferson chuckles out loud and picks up the snowglobe, glaring at it with a smug smirk on his face. “Don’t worry, there’s certainly no rush.” Shaking it ever so gently in order to let it snow on Max, he says, “It’s funny, I thought the Other you was crazy when she approached me for all of this. But now I know just how weird the world can be. For that, I must thank one of you.” With a shrug of his shoulders, he tells her, “Thank you.”

“Don’t try anything stupid, asshole.” Looking over to the entrance to the Dark Room, he spots his old student Chloe, armed with a pistol, standing alongside Rachel Amber; the girl the Children claim thwarted their plot to kill Victoria Chase.

Feigning innocent confusion, he asks her, “Miss Price, what are you doing here with… this lady?”

The duo step inside and don’t take their eyes off of him. Chloe answers, “We’re here to save my girlfriend. What about you, creep?”

Jefferson plants the snowglobe on his desk and tells her, “I’m here because my art is important. My art is beloved. My art-”

Rachel chimes in, “Is so amazing, yadda yadda yadda.” With the Storm Singer’s Staff aimed at him, she blows him away with a tornado she summoned. She blows him away with such ferocity that he is torn apart by the winds, leaving a bloody mess stained against his cabinet of red binders. With a giddy grin on her face, she remarks, “That was easy.”

“We have to find Max.” Chloe rushes forward and looks at his desk. She spots her family’s old Lighthouse snowglobe and asks, “Whoa, why does he have this?” As she looks at it, she sees her lover, exclaiming happily, “Max!”

Rachel holds onto the glass covering and, with the rumbling strength of a tornado concentrated in her grip, shatters the glass, allowing Max to safely return to normal size.

After some stretches of her limbs and her wings, she looks to her girlfriend and says, “Oh, Chloe.” The two hold each other and Max quickly plants a kiss on Chloe’s cheek. Rachel joins the hug and Max continues, “God, I’ve missed you so much.”

“Same, dude.” Patting Max on the head, Chloe adds, “Despite all the shit that’s happened… Thank you for letting me see Dad again. It made this whole thing worth it.”

As Max looks around the Dark Room, she notices that someone is missing from their posse. “How’s Victoria?”

Both Rachel and Chloe sigh and stay silent, having seen Victoria’s reaction to the truth. Chloe tells her firmly, “She knows about Kate. Christ, I feel so sorry for her.”

“She doesn’t know everything about Kate. But she will.” Taking another look around the room, Max grabs her phone from a lockbox and asks, “Should I call her?”

* * *

Victoria walks through the wilderness surrounding Blackwell Academy, hoping to evade attention from any local authorities. She’s already heard a few helicopters flying overhead. Suddenly, she hears another noise: her ringtone. Seeing the caller ID, she answers anxiously, “Hello?”

“Victoria, hey-”

She crosses her arms and asks, “Which one am I talking to?”

“Your Max. The good Max.”

As much as she prefers her to the Other Max, Victoria says, “That’s a relative term. Though I’m sure Katie would agree.”

“I’m sorry, Victoria. It wasn’t supposed to be like that.”

An annoyed laugh escapes Victoria’s throat and she angrily asks, “Is that so? What WAS the plan then? It’d be quick and painless?”

“We’re getting off-topic. I need to warn you about the Other Max and her plot.”

Holding back all the energy in her that wants to curse Max out, Victoria warns her, “Don’t think this conversation is over just yet… Maxine.” Deep down, it hurts her to use that name, knowing how much Max hates it. She drops the matter and asks, “So what did you want to tell me?”

“I need to warn you that my Other will be anticipating your arrival to the Dorms. She’s in her room and has sent for the Children and the Singer. They won’t be around for a while but do be careful.”

Victoria dryly tells her, “Thanks for the head’s up. Is there anything else?”

“Yes, Kate’s in Blackwell alread- -dy so ZZZZ you shou- s-see he- WRRRRY -ou still can.”

Confused, Victoria asks, “Max? Max, are you guys alright?”

“Wha- EEEEE -re cutting out real- -badly.” “ZZZZ -rap, he’s- EEEEE -oria, the Sin- - ansformed into som- -monster! Be caref- EEEEEEEEEEEE”

“Max?” Victoria redials the number, worried for her friends’ safety.

“ _We’re sorry, but the number you are trying to reach has been disconnected._ ”

As Victoria puts her phone away, another call comes in. She asks it upon answering, “Lisa?”

The voice she is answered by is one filled with silent, sinister intent: “No, no, it’s the Other gal.”

Enraged, Victoria asks, “What are you calling me for? And did Lisa seriously have a cellphone?”

“Yep. She did. But that snitch won’t have a thing to worry about in a second or two.” Out of Max’s dorm room window goes Lisa, her pot shattering on the concrete below. Victoria rushes to her aid while the Other Max taunts, “Butter fingers.”

As she carries Lisa to a nearby tree in the courtyard, the Other Max continues, “I’m calling you to taunt you. You’re all alone now. No Max, no Chloe, and no Rachel.”

Digging a hole to plant Lisa, Victoria asks, afraid of the potential answer, “What did you do to them?”

“Let’s just say they’re… dead.”

“You monster!”

“And here I thought I was the ‘selfie ho of Blackwell’. Eh, it doesn’t matter. NOTHING WILL MATT-”

A knock at her door is heard, and someone asks, “Mad Max, what are you yelling about in there?”

“Nothing, Sweet-T! Just defending my favorite movie EVER; ‘Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within’!” After her minion leaves, the Other Max continues, “So, uh, nothing matters, Victoria. Come and get meeee.” And like that, she hangs up on her so that she can wait for Victoria’s arrival.

Looking up at Victoria as she covers her roots in soil, Lisa tells her savior, “Bless you, child.”

She nods her head and tells the plant, “Of course… I’m sorry this happened to you.”

The plant shrugs her shoulders and tells Victoria, “It is as the plan goes. All that matters is that you stop that woman.” She salutes Victoria as she runs into the dorms.

The hallowed halls of the girls’ dormitories are silent and empty, what with everyone holed up in their dorms as news of Nathan Prescott’s death has spread. Slowly, Victoria marches forward.

_224 - Taylor Christensen 217 - Stella Hill_

_223 - Juliet Watson 218 - Dana Ward_

_222 - Kate Marsh_

Max is ahead, but Kate is right there. Deviating from her mission for just a brief moment, she calmly knocks on Kate’s door, calling out to her, “Katie?”

The door opens and Kate looks up at Victoria with an uneasy smirk. “Oh, it’s you.” Another look at Victoria and she begs the question, “Are you alright?”

“I am. But I needed to see you first.”

“Before what?”

“Before I save the day.” Victoria would laugh if she could, but she knows what’s at stake here. Looking at Kate’s soft face, she asks, “Can I come in?”

Hesitating briefly, Kate tells her, “Sure.” She lets her in and Victoria takes a seat at Kate’s desk. Once more, Kate comments, “You look hurt.”

Victoria tells her with a smirk on her face, “Just flesh wounds, y’know. How have you been? No one’s hurt you? You feel fine?”

Kate takes a deep breath and tells her, “Yeah, totally. Max came around to see me after the party, made sure everything was good. She left pretty quickly though.”

“Good. As long as you’re alright, that’s what matters.” The smirk on Victoria’s face grows into a grin.

“I appreciate the idea.” Kate takes a seat on her bed and looks down at Alice, whose eyes are fixed on Victoria. As she scratches at the back of her neck, she asks, “Are we friends… somewhere else?”

Victoria asks with a raised eyebrow, “Hm?”

“Me and Max talked about alternate universes. That, the way you act, and the timing of it all… Things are adding up in weird ways. Is it true?”

“We… The you I knew, I wasn’t great to her. I was, pardon my French, a bitch to her. I should’ve been her best friend, I should’ve been better to EVERYONE around me. But I wasn’t. And I wasn’t there for her when she needed someone. But she was there for me when things were tough. Despite everything I did, we became friends… more than friends. We loved each other. I loved her.”

“What happened to her?”

“She saved my life, and sacrificed herself to do so. Now, I’m stuck here trying to save the world from a bunch of assholes who want to end it. And if I could bring her back, hold her close, kiss her, stroke her hair, I would do whatever it took to do so.” As she holds back tears, Victoria asks, “Why do you want to know?”

Kate hesitates when telling her what she knows already, but does tell her the truth. “Max told me about you. What you did to me in your… timeline. I didn’t know whether to believe her, it all sounded so crazy. But it makes so much sense.”

Tears start to stream down Victoria’s face. Wiping them away, she tells Kate, “It’s true. I know you must hate me, but just know that you’re right to feel that way. It’s not your fault, I’m a bad person but I’m trying-”

Kate passes Victoria a box of tissues, which she graciously accepts. “I certainly didn’t like what I heard. But I don’t hate you. You saved me from Nathan and Mr. Jefferson. You loved your me. And you’ve grown past how Max described the old you. For what it’s worth, I forgive you.” She walks over to Victoria and wraps her up in a hug.

As she feels the love brush over her, she tells Kate, “Thank you.” Victoria rises to her feet and tells Kate, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go save the world.”

Kate waves goodbye to Victoria as she steps out of her room and back into the hallway. “Good luck.”

 _221_ \- “Maxine!”

Victoria frantically kicks her door… failing to open it. She kicks it again, and again, each to no avail. She then tries the doorknob and it opens. She rushes into the room, the gun in her hand aimed straight forward.

Standing by the window, the Other Max stares her down, helmet on head and jacket wrapped around her neck like a cape. “At last, you’ve made it.” Victoria fires on her with her gun, hitting her in the stomach several times. The Other Max falls to her knees, clutching her wounds. As Victoria approaches her, the villainess looks back up and screams, “C’mon!” Quickly, Victoria charges at the Other Max, grabbing her by the neck. “Harder, bitch!”

Blinded by her rage, Victoria fails to notice the Other Max grabbing her guitar and smashing it against her ribs, knocking her away.

The Other Max staggers to her feet and begins laughing. “You’re good, Vicky, but I’m not dying _here_.” She falls on her back as a violent gust of wind throws Victoria out of her room into the tree in the courtyard. Looking down on Victoria, the Other Max declares, “Welcome to your swan song!”

Victoria climbs down from the tree and looks around the area in panic. All over the place, the black-cloaked cultists are standing still. Suddenly, the breeze blows past Victoria, forming into a humanoid figure standing in front of the doors.

It speaks in a grumbled tone: “You know what they say, young lady. Third time’s the charm.”


	10. Mind Your Time When Multiverse Hopping

The Storm Singer approaches Victoria. He has grown in stature, no doubt aided by his transformation into an elemental force. One of wind, as it seems. Victoria asks, horrified at this revelation. “What happened to you?”

Looking at his hands, he gloats, “The Other Max gave me more than just a storm. She gave me the power to BE THE STORM!”

From her dorm room, the Other Max cheers on, “Give her hell, Whirl-Jack! AHAHA!”

Kate looks into Max’s room, having heard the damage, and asks in shock, “Max? What is going on?”

Nonchalantly, she tells her friend, “Oh, we’re just taking care of Victoria. She killed Nathan, y’know.”

Kate is clearly confused. “But he wanted to hurt me.” _Just when things were starting to add up for her, this gets thrown into the mix. Just her life, it seems_.

The Other Max shrugs her shoulders and explains calmly (as if she isn’t dressed like a second-rate supervillain), “He wanted to hurt all of us, he was a freak. But that’s no excuse for cold-blooded murder. It’s, like, in the Ten Commandments.” Quickly, she averts her attention back to the outside as the cult charges Victoria. Sure, she’s putting up a good fight, she’s already taken down five of the cult freaks with ease, but she’s so badly outnumbered.

With her attention averted, Kate knows she must act fast. And she does as she harshly shoves the Other Max out of her dorm to the world below. She crashes to the ground with a THUD, knocking the air out of the villainess… and royally pissing her off. _Et tu, Kate?_ Without words, she rises to her feet, glaring at Kate with a stare that could kill. She walks over to the walls and digs her fingers into it.

As she punches a cultist across the face, Victoria spots the Other Max’s slow, methodical approach to scaling the wall. “Katie, run for it!”

Two cultists charge Victoria and knock her to the ground. Quickly, they grab her wrists and hold her down as the Storm Singer stands over her with Lisbeth Fischer by his side. “Silence, child. Let the sinner pay for her insolence.”

“Fuck you!”

The Singer sighs. “Language is a mortal sin, girl.” He raises his fist and it turns from wind to stone. He is so caught up in the moment that he fails to see his own staff fly into the Other Max’s face, knocking her back to the dirt. “Let this be your less-”

The staff charges through his fist, shattering it. It then swerves to make contact with the cultists holding Victoria down, knocking them away as well. Frantically, she aims the staff at her opponents and yells, “Stay back!”

Fischer, the gold-scarf cultist, laughs mockingly and asks, “You think you know how to-” She fails to finish that sentence as Victoria summons a funnel of fire that engulfs the Reverend Mother in flame. She screams, “AAAAAAAGH!”, before writhing on the grass to try and extinguish herself.

Still aiming the staff at the cultists, Victoria screams, “Don’t make me ask twice, you fucks, I’ll burn every one of you!” And yet, they still move forward, intent on killing the girl. “Fine, come and get some!”

A rocknado crashes into three cultists, slamming them into the dirt. Another cultist lunges at Victoria from behind, but she quickly spins around on her heel and whacks at the cloaked figure, knocking them around with the staff.

As the cultist count goes down, there is only one man standing between Victoria and the Other Max: the Storm Singer. His fists crackle with magma as he attempts to punch her, but she moves fast enough away from his blows to remain unburnt. She uses the staff to extinguish his hands with waterspouts erupting from the ground, much to his rage.

Suddenly, an idea hits Victoria. She summons a tornado from the staff, consuming the Singer and pulling him inward. Angrily, as he fights back and jumps from air to water, water to fire, fire to dirt, and dirt all the way back to air, he screams, “NO!”

His rapid metamorphosis fails to save him as Victoria thinks just as quickly, and within seconds, the Singer is trapped in the staff.

Angrily, the girl, now standing over the beaten and broken black-cloaked figures, looks over at the Other Max and snaps the staff over her knee.

Unfortunately, while snapped, the staff still sings. Out of one end, it says: “It takes more than that to kill me, girl!”

Out of the other end, it exclaims: “Yeah, man, we’re double trouble now!”, 

Victoria looks down at the snapped staff, divided in two, with absolute confusion. The first end asks, “Uh, who are you?”

“I’m the Storm Singer! Er, we’re the Storm Singer… s.”

End-1 guffaws and mocks, “Nice try, imposter!”

“‘Imposter’? We’re the same person!”

“No, we’re not.”

“Yes, we are.”

“No, we’re not.”

“Yes, we are!”

“No, we’re NOT.”

“YES, WE ARE!”

Victoria slowly backs away from the argument, telling the two, “I’ll just leave you both to your business.”

“Fine by me!”, the Other Max screams as she lunges onto Victoria’s back. Laughing over her, the villainess remarks callously, “Look at this destruction, Victoria! And you claim to be the hero?” Victoria manages to toss her aside, causing the Other Max to slam into the nearby tree. “I have ruled empires, changed landscapes, enlightened the masses of this time!”

Victoria angrily scoffs, asking, “All so you can give this shit monologue? Cut the crap!”

The Other Max shrugs and admits, “Eh. Was worth a shot. DIE!” With a stunning pace, she charges Victoria who elbows her in the cheek. Knocked to the ground, she takes the chance to kick the Other Max in the face, in the gut, and in the ribs until she swiftly hops back to her feet and headbutts Victoria in the stomach.

Victoria jumps to her feet and, as the Other Max runs over to a downed cultist, she chases after her. She tackles the doppelganger just as she procures a knife.

The Other Max tries shoving Victoria away in order to get a good stab at her, but the taller girl is too strong and too pissed off to surrender. This shows as Victoria begins slamming the Other Max’s helmeted head into the dirt, knocking her about a bit. Suddenly, her attention is shifted to the watch on her wrist. The wormhole watch on her wrist.

As the Other Max attempts to slash at her with the knife, Victoria grabs it out of her hand and uses it to cut the watch out of her possession. It drops to the dirt and Victoria grabs it. She rises to her feet and dashes away from the courtyard to get away from the dazed Other Max. As she runs, she hears her enemy’s shrill screaming: “Give that BACK!” Looking down at the watch, Victoria sees, highlighted in the center of the interface:

**_UNIVERSE-NONE_ **

**_Arcadia Bay, Oregon, USA_ **

**_OCTOBER 5TH, 2013_ **

**_05:11 PM PST_ **

_Time to go back._ Victoria readjusts the coordinates of the watch to one she’d like.

**_UNIVERSE-227_ **

**_Arcadia Bay, Oregon, USA_ **

**_DECEMBER 25TH, 2014_ **

**_3:11 AM PST_ **

Victoria rotates a switch on the watch and goes back to her time.

_BEEP BEEP BEEP_.

Or rather, she would. The problem is that she’s still standing where she was before. _Perhaps it’s a glitch_ , Victoria muses to herself. She tries again and… _BEEP BEEP BEEP_. Nothing! She looks at the watch, absolutely pissed, and almost screams in frustration at what she sees:

**_LOCATION INVALID_ **

**_Please try a new place/time._ **

Quickly, she readjusts the time on the watch to something that could be of assistance.

**_UNIVERSE-227_ **

**_Seattle, Washington, USA_ **

**_DECEMBER 25TH, 2014_ **

**_03:11 AM PST_ **

Victoria hurriedly activates the watch, and hears no beeps. She leaves this timeline for one less fucked-up, as she is consumed by light.

* * *

In a flash of light, she arrives home. At the Chase Space. The world is blue and dull, with pictures of other worlds, other faces caught in the moment of a flash. Certainly not her parents’ style. Still, things change, and it has been a while since she last visited.

And apparently, her parents have a visitor, sitting at the gallery’s minibar.

Tapping on her shoulder, Victoria asks, “Excuse me, miss? Have my parents come home yet?”

The clearly drunken gallery director, with a Santa hat on her blonde head, tells her, “Hate to break it to you, but this place is closed. If you’ll just see yourself out, that’d be-” Their green eyes meet. Victoria recognizes Victoria. The younger one is rather dismayed at seeing her counterpart in such bad sorts. The older one on the other hand: “What the FUCK?”

As the younger Victoria tries to place a hand on her shoulder, the older Victoria staggers to her feet and begs with an empty bottle in her hand, “Stay back, please, don’t steal anything!”

“God, no. I’m not gonna steal anything. I’m not here to hurt you.” Quickly, the young Victoria looks down at her watch and is shocked at what she sees:

**_UNIVERSE-7_ **

**_Seattle, Washington, USA_ **

**_DECEMBER 25TH, 2017_ **

**_03:11 AM PST_ **

“Crap.”

To make matters worse, another visitor has entered the Chase Space. In a nature as sinister as ever, the Other Max steps out of the shadows and giddily states with a smile on her face, “My, my. I get to kill not one but TWO Victorias?”

Young Victoria shoos away her counterpartt, hurriedly and worriedly telling her, “Go, hide.” As the older Victoria hides behind the minibar she was drinking at, the younger puts up her fists and tells her adversary, “I’m the one you want, leave her alone.”

“Very well.” The Other Max jumps at Victoria, who grabs her by the throat and slams her into the minibar. As she throws a punch at Victoria, the Other Max sets her sights on the watch and tries adjusting the time to get to a time she wants to go to. Of course, it’s not easy with Victoria choking her out. Still, anywhere would be better than Victoria’s home turf, so the Other Max sets a new destination.

* * *

A large vessel sits at rest under a clear and starry night sky. The passengers of this vessel - pirates of all creeds and characteristics - dance aimlessly and joyously without a care in the world. Leading the charge are the Captains of the Vessel: Bluebeard and Long Max Silver. Together, they sing: “Yo-ho-ho ‘n a bottle of ZIMA!”

The festival is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Victoria and the Other Max, crashing into several barrels of ale. Approaching the fighting duo, Bluebeard asks, “Who be these land-lubbin’ harpies?”

The Other Max raises an eyebrow and checks her watch:

_**UNIVERSE-R** _

_**Seattle Battle Bay, Washington, UCA** _

_**DECEMBER 25TH, 1773** _

_**10:11 PM PST** _

“This isn’t France.”

Victoria delivers a fist to her face and a snide, “No shit, Sherlock.”

Swiftly, the pirates aim their swords at the two intruders. Long Max Silver declares, “It’s the Dread Queen Chase of London! Get her!”

Victoria rolls her eyes and leaves the timeline calmly, waving and saying, “Bye!”

Now, it’s just the Other Max dealing with these pissed off pirates. Putting her hands up in defeat, she attempts to negotiate, “Look, ladies, we can talk this through like civilized folk.”

But they’re not having any of it.

* * *

Victoria arrives back in the Dorms. It’s festive, Christmas lights all strung about. Silence flutters through the air… save for sensual moaning emanating from her room. Or rather, a version of her who decided to hang a sign on it that says: _HOT SEXY TIMES IN HERE_. Quickly, she looks at her watch and lets out an annoyed groan.

**_UNIVERSE-34_ **

**_Arcadia Bay, Oregon, USA_ **

**_DECEMBER 25TH, 2013_ **

**_01:09 AM PST_ **

Having heard the outside noise, Max steps out happily, dressed up in her birthday suit no less.

Victoria quickly averts her eyes in disgust and yells, “Oh, God! Ew! Ew! Put a fucking shirt on! EW!”

From inside the room, Chloe asks, “Is that another you, Tori?”

Laying right next to her, the kinky Victoria answers, “Seems so. Care to make this eightsome a ninesome?”

“NO!” Doing her best to avoid any eye contact with the naked Max, Victoria readjusts her time and leaves with zero hesitation.

* * *

Another mistake means another universe that isn’t hers. This one is nicer though. Things are soothing and calm, with an old world feeling to it. _Maybe a bit too cold though. Where am I?_ As usual, time to check the time.

**_UNIVERSE-702_ **

**_Svartväl Akademi, Trondheim, SE_ **

**_MAY 3RD, 2010_ **

**_02:30 PM CET_ **

For once on this little trek, Victoria feels disappointed that she’ll have to leave. Still, she looks on the bright side: _Here’s to good things ahead._

 _Here’s to home ahead._ And so she sets her sights for her home universe.

* * *

**_UNIVERSE-21_ **

**_Cloverton, Ohio, USA_ **

**_APRIL 5TH, 2019_ **

**_01:27 PM EST_ **

Another detour, it seems. Victoria thinks to herself, _I didn’t put that…_ As she looks around at this parallel universe, she sees a lovely constant at work. One named… “Danny. Oh, hiiii!”

They wave a flag to her, saying, “ _Nice to meet you too, love!_ ” _Of course they don’t know you. Eh. Still cool._ Victoria walks over to a mailbox as a letter sticks out of it. One addressed to her, and written under it, “ _A ‘Mr. Bridges’ came by!_ ” Opening the letter, she reads its contents: “ _He says Hi! As do I! <3 _”

Victoria clutches the letter to her chest with a smile on her face. “Awww. Thanks, Danny.” Readjusting her time, Victoria waves goodbye to Danny, telling them, “Take care, friend!”

* * *

In West Philadelphia, cold and rainy, a desperate father runs through the desolate streets in search of, “SHAAAAAAAUN!”

Trying to cover herself with her hands from the downpour, Victoria checks the time on her watch:

**_UNIVERSE-39_ **

**_Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA_ **

**_OCTOBER 4TH, 2011_ **

**_07:42 PM EST_ **

While fixing up the time, Victoria still hears the desperate cries of the father: “SHAUN!” The desperate… rather repetitive cries of the father. “SHAUN, WHERE ARE YOU?!” _It’s certainly sad, I guess_ . “SHAAAAAAAUN!” _Okay, did he literally just repeat that scream?_

* * *

Blackwell Academy, its dorms under police lockdown. They have arrived en masse as calls have flooded their offices regarding a supernatural fight between the leader of the Vortex Club, the dreaded Children of Nature’s Winds, and a mysterious blonde intruder who is the key suspect for the murder of Nathan Prescott.

The blonde suspect returns in a sudden flash of light and checks her watch with a giddy smile.

**_UNIVERSE-NONE_ **

**_Arcadia Bay, Oregon, USA_ **

**_OCTOBER 5TH, 2013_ **

**_08:40 PM PST_ **

“Hey, I’m back!” Suddenly, she realizes her situation. Blankly, she grumbles, “Oh.”

A dozen police officers aim their guns at Victoria, yelling, “FREEZE!”

She raises her open palms and angrily grumbles, “OH.”

Stepping past the police barricades, the Other Max - patched up and scarred - declares, “That’s her, officers! She killed Nathan Prescott!”

“Not true. That was actually Ms. Caulfield. I witnessed everything.” The police look at the source of the claim and see Samuel walking onto the scene.

“N-no. That was her!” While the Other Max points her fingers at Victoria, several officers aim their guns at the clear villain in the case. Seeing that this isn’t going anywhere, she sighs. “Oh, screw it.” She charges Victoria, knocking her to the ground. “Give me my watch back!”

Victoria knees her in the stomach, yelling, “Like hell I will!”

Samuel walks over to the fighters before whispering to Victoria, “Think of the pictures. Think of the pictures.”

The Other Max hisses angrily, “What does that even mean?”

Victoria remembers well. With a smirk, she sets the watch to the time she wants:

**_UNIVERSE-227_ **

**_Master Gohdo’s Martial Arts Monastery, Pakistan_ **

**_DECEMBER 25TH, 2014_ **

**_03:11 AM PKT_ **

As Victoria tries keeping the Other Max back, the villainess screams, “NO!” Despite her efforts, they leave U-None in a flash. 

* * *

A cool breeze from the high altitude blows through the monastery, only interrupted by the bright flash that summons Victoria and the Other Max, both enthralled in combat. Looking at her surroundings, the villainess yells, “GODDAMMIT! Not this place!” Anchoring her forearm on Victoria’s throat, she violently threatens, “ACK! I’ll KILL YOU!”

But with a swift left hook to her enemy’s face, Victoria is free. She runs through the facility to the Lobby, expecting everyone to be there.

And to her relief, they all are: Master Gohdo, Sani, K’mai, the future-Daniel, the young Drifters, Dana and Juliet, Warren, Steph and Mikey, the redeemed Enforcers, Naton the Normal-Man, Dr. Court and the Jumper, Jumbo, Rose Amber, the Pigeon Soldier, the Hawt Dawg Men, the prisoners, the agents and the police.

And yet, no sign of Max, Chloe and/or Rachel.

Naton marches over to Victoria and proclaims as he hugs her, “Victoria, thank God you’re alive!” He looks at her wounds, her drenched clothing, the panic in her eyes, and asks, “What happened to you?”

Holding the wormhole watch in the air, she hurriedly explains, “Need to- need to get this shit… far away, destroy it, something- uh, anything.”

The future-Daniel asks, “What’s happening, Victoria?”

Busting through the doors to the lobby, the Other Max joyfully exclaims, “Iiiii aaaaaam happeniiiiing!”

“Max?”

Grabbing a gun from one of the police, Victoria explains in a panic, “No! Not Max, that’s not our Maaaax! Kill her! NOW!” She shoots the Other Max in the shoulder, angering the mad villain.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, the Arcadian warriors rush the Other Max, attacking her in their many unique ways.

Walking over to the young drifters, Victoria asks Penny, “What day is it?”

“Christmas Day.”

“Year?”

“2014.”

“Oh, good.” It starts to hit her just what she’s lost to return home. Explaining to anyone listening, she tragically says, “Katie’s gone. And so’s Chloe. Rachel. And Max.”

Dana shakes her head in remorse as Rose mutters, “Christ.”

The news provides enough of an emotional distraction to allow the Other Max to run from the fighters wailing on her. Tackling Victoria, she screams in her face, “GIVE ME THE FUCKING WATCH!”

Victoria kicks away the Other Max and runs over to her to kick her in the stomach. But just as quickly, the Other Max rises to her feet with the aid of a viscous black ooze dripping from her wounds. With all the anger she has built up, Victoria delivers a brutal punch to the Other Max’s face.

With a sickening _CRACK_ , the Other Max falls on her back and lays there, the glass in her helmet shattering on impact. The heroes anticipate her revival, but she just lays there silent and still.

Nervously, Victoria mumbles in shock, “Oh shit. Oh shit.” Nearly fainting, she falls on her butt and scuttles away from the corpse of Max’s doppelganger.

Poking the corpse with his cane, Master Gohdo announces solemnly, “She’s dead.” The room breathes a sigh of relief as Rose and Steph help Victoria to her feet.

Victoria adds, her voice shaky, “I hope so. What do we do now? With the watch?”

“Like you said, we get rid of it any way we can.”

The room looks at the source of the voice and sees Samuel standing in the monastery. Steph asks in both confusion and relief, “Samuel? What are you doing here?”

“Samuel is here to help Mrs. Chase save the multiverse.”

Somewhat angry at the elusive janitor, she asks, “From what? The Other Max is dead!”

Weakly, the Other Max rises to her feet once more, her limbs hung down by gravity, and says, “Think… again!” Using all the strength she can muster, she tosses aside her helmet, allowing the world to bear witness to her face, eyes and expression frozen in death.

Victoria screams as, from a wound in the villainess’ stomach, a liquidy black hand surges out and grabs the wormhole watch from Victoria’s possession. It attaches to the Other Max’s wrist and she adjusts the time before vanishing in a bright flash of light and leaving a portal behind, suspended in the air.

Victoria angrily screams, “SHIT!”

Samuel explains, “She’s gone.”

Trying not to blow up on the guy, Victoria asks with every ounce of snark in her body, “Gone where, hm? Where, Mister Know-It-All?”

“She’s gone to France. In search of our creation. In search of the Creek.”

Figuring that she’ll have to finish what she started, Victoria hides the gun in her skirt and bravely states, “I’ll be back.”

Rose plants a hand on her shoulder and says, “Victoria, if you want, one of us can take your place. You need rest.”

“I’ll rest when that evil bitch is dead. This is for my friends.”

Sighing upon realizing that negotiations are over, Rose gives the girl a hug and tells her hopefully, “Good luck!”

“Thanks.” As she walks into the portal, she looks back at the other warriors rooting for her victory. With a smirk on her face, she tells them, “I suppose it’s only customary to say it. Au revoir.” Proudly, she walks into the portal into what will be battle.

* * *

APRIL 12TH, 2013

Universe- **∞**

It’s raining in Paris. The developers at DontNod Entertainment have left for the night to their friends, their families, civilian life.

It’s empty at HQ. All except for one intruder.

Slowly, the Other Max limps through the darkness in search of her final destination.

Finally, she reaches a computer with its screen glowing in the darkness. A hope for the future of the company as trees flutter in the wind and waves crash along the bayside of Arcadia Ba- er, Aurora Creek. Hovering over the town are the words:

**_WHAT IF?_ **

**_A DontNod Entertainment Game_ **

The Other Max opens a portal to the proto-town and cackles to herself in sheer joy at what will soon be the fulfillment of her mission.

“STOP!”, Victoria yells as, from out of nowhere, she crashes into the Other Max. Caught off-guard, the two stumble and fall into the portal, headed for their final battle.

* * *

There is no time in this prototypical town. No date. Only hope, for profit and creativity.

As Victoria regains a sense of her surroundings, the Other Max tells her with a sickeningly wide grin on her face, “Welcome to the What-If-iverse, Victoria. Or as I’ll make it, your resting place.”


	11. The Only Answer Is The Other

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning! This chapter will contain Canon-Typical Violence as well as some Body Horror and Death. Be advised.

The world is serene, all at peace in Aurora Creek. All untouched by mankind’s hand… well, except for the developers, they kinda made it.

Limping about with tired limbs, the Other Max asks her enemy, “Look at all of this. Isn’t it lovely?”

Victoria pulls out her gun and yells, “You’re gonna pay for what you did to my friends!”

With the smile still frozen on her face, she jokes, “Don’t we all?” A bullet burns through her chest and she starts cackling, like it doesn’t phase her in the slightest. Turning around to face Victoria, she declares, “If I’m going to die, I prefer it to be as myself.”

Fingers made of black ooze wiggle out of the Other Max’s mouth, trying to pull its body out of that fleshy Caulfield chassis. The fingers, long and sharp, make way for hands which reach for the world. Eventually, the body collapses and the Other Max reveals her true form: a tall, lanky, pitch black, humanoid form with glowing white eyes.

Paralyzed in fear, Victoria can only stare in horror at the monstrosity standing before her. Part of her wants to throw up and part of her wants to scream. But every other bit of her is dead set on killing this bitch before she destroys everything.

Wiping away at any reminder of her human past, the Other Max speaks with a staticky tone, “It felt so tight in there. Oh my ME!” Seeing that Victoria is still frozen in terror, she asks with an angry glare, “Now, what was that again about me paying you?”

“You’re going down. I’m gonna ki-”

The Other Max swats Victoria away, propelling her into a nearby dumpster. With a hand cupped next to her ear, the monster asks, “What was thaaaat? You need to speak up!”

Quickly, Victoria pulls herself out of the garbage - a simple task considering it hasn’t been rendered yet - and fires several rounds into the Other Max’s chest. Clutching at the wounds in an exaggerated manner, she yells, “Oh, y’got meee! My turn!” She makes her hands into guns and fires blackened slugs in Victoria’s direction.

Running for cover as the Other Max’s laughs echo through her ears, Victoria grumbles hurriedly, “Oh, Christ. Oh, Christ. Oh, my fucking god!” She runs into a shop, barricading the door with a shelf she drops in front of the entrance. She tries getting her breathing in control, but it’s hard with an evil monster hunting her down.

Large steps rumble and reverberate throughout the town. They’re getting closer too. The Other Max looks into the shop and spots Victoria, aiming her gun at the threat. She slams a fist into the building, trying to crush Victoria to no avail. She yells, “You can run, but you can’t-” Electricity ripples through her body as she punches a high voltage breaker. “YEEEEOW! Stupid SHOP!”

Quickly, Victoria tears open a ventilation shaft and climbs out, avoiding the Other Max’s wrath as she begins tearing the shop asunder.

As Victoria runs along the beach, she sees a spotlight. Something that really shouldn’t be there. She inspects it, noticing nothing out of the ordinary with it.

Suddenly, darkness forms in the sky as the Other Max lunges at Victoria.

Without a moment’s hesitation, she turns on the spotlight and aims it at the Other Max. She sees the villainess’ black skin burn up and melt in the air as it makes contact with the bright white beam of light. She falls to the ground, writhing in pain, and Victoria takes her chance to strike at the monster, kicking her several times while she’s on the ground. As the monster tries to get up, Victoria punches her square in the face.

Her nose now broken, the Other Max growls and extends her arm, slashing at the spotlight to destroy it. In the cacophony, Victoria makes her escape, much to the monster’s rage. She roars at the sky, readier than ever to kill Victoria.

* * *

Something tells her that hiding on the ~~Arcadia Bay~~ ahem, Aurora Creek Water Tower was a bad idea. She knows it. But she also knows that there aren’t many other places to hide, considering most of the buildings in town are just blocks shaped to look like buildings. _Is this what life is? Are we just… blocks shaped like buildings?_

Another existential crisis wiggles around in Victoria’s mind. Calming down with controlled breaths, she tells herself, “Deep breaths, Victoria. You can beat her. You just have to find more spotlights.” She chuckles to herself. “It’s a goddamn fetch quest.”

Sunlight shines down on the water tower and Victoria reaches a hand to bask in it. Funnily enough, she can almost feel it.

Climbing up to the top of the water tower, she sees another spotlight. With the lack of attention on her at the moment, she takes a chance to really study the build of it. In doing so, Victoria sees a peculiar cross welded onto the spotlight. Under it says the creator of these spotlights:

_KaybeveM Illumination_

It dawns on her just how familiar that name is.

It also dawns on her that the Other Max is flying right at her.

Victoria shines the light on the villain, sending her falling into the wilderness below. However, after only a few seconds of silence, she hears the water tower start to buckle. She feels it shake.

She looks down and she sees the Other Max ripping apart the legs of the tower.

It begins tipping over, headed straight for the town, and Victoria hangs on to the spotlight for dear life. Suddenly, she has an idea.

Aiming the spotlight down at the ground, she turns it on and uses the force it generates to slow her descent. She carefully makes her way back to ~~Arcadia Bay~~ Aurora Creek Avenue, keeping an eye on the Other Max as she dashes back into town in hot pursuit of her.

Once her feet reach the ground, Victoria aims the spotlight at the rapidly approaching Other Max and fires it, keeping the villainess back.

As she once more writhes on the floor in agony, Victoria runs over to her and starts kicking her repeatedly.

However, distracted by her rage, she fails to stop the Other Max from wrapping one of her lanky arms around her neck. Victoria kicks as she is held up in the air with the Other Max’s grip only tightening. Quickly, she slams her into the spotlight, knocking it aside.

As the Other Max giggles, staring at Victoria with a malicious joy, Victoria tries grabbing for anything she can to free herself with. “Oh, Victoria! You never cease to annoy me!”

Victoria tries her best to be snarky, saying, “I aim to pl-”

The Other Max strengthens her grip on Victoria’s throat, yelling rather annoyedly, “Oh, shut up!” She looks at her old rival, desperately squirming against death. “Look at you. A disgusting little parasite, just like all the countless people you claim to be fighting for. Sad to say, you’re about to disappoint them all.” Other Max shrugs her shoulders and continues, “But hey, that’s just how it is. How it will be. How it always has been.”

Still reaching for something, anything, Victoria sticks her hand into the damaged spotlight. Everything is getting blurry, going dark. She needs light. Suddenly, she feels a sharp crystal. She violently plucks it out and stabs the crystal into the Other Max’s arm.

The monster screams in pain, retracting her arm as she does so. Victoria hangs on to the elastic limb and uses the speed provided to deliver another punch to her face.

The Other Max desperately starts digging into the ground to escape, which is much harder with Victoria pulling the crystal out of her arm. The two separate, leaving Victoria confused. She looks at the crystal and feels it start to melt in her hands.

She tries holding it to her best efforts, panicking as she fails. Thankfully, another pair of hands - pale, bright, womanly - offers their assistance: “You have to put your mind onto what you want it to be. Like, you want a sword? Think about it. A gun? Think. A bouncy ball?” This new figure, made of light, molds the crystal into a ball, bouncing it on the floor a few times.

Victoria tries looking at this person, which is hard since she’s pure light. Still, she recognizes that voice, in spite of its wavy and ethereal delivery. “Katie?”

Kate giggles with a grin growing on her face. “In the fle-” Victoria runs up to hug her… but since she’s made of light, she merely phases through her. “Oh, sorry again. Let me just, uh…” She solidifies her body and says to her wife, “There. Now, you may kiss me.”

Victoria holds Kate in a bear hug, kissing her as she does so. She adds, in disbelief and relief, “I thought you were dead.”

“As did I. But my work is never done.” She opens her hand, revealing a black hole in her grasp. Quickly, before it starts growing, she closes her fist to contain it. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t available earlier. That thing was keeping me really busy.”

“You don’t have to apologize, Katie. I’m sorry. Really, I’m sorry. I-I know what I did to you. What… I did, what that Vortex Club video did to you, what it pushed you to do.” Victoria looks down at the ground, holding back tears. “You don’t have to forgive me, I deserv-”

Kate softly wraps her arms around Victoria’s shoulders, comforting her. “I’d forgive you anyways. Besides, you’re not a mean bitch anymore. You’re my wife. The one who’s saving the world. The one who made things right with another Kate. But that’s not relevant to this. You’ve got to kill the Other Max.”

Victoria asks, sniffling, “You’re not gonna stay with me and help?”

“I’ll always be with you.” As Kate steps away from Victoria, she reaches behind her neck and unhooks her cross necklace. “Have this”, Kate says as she hands it to Victoria. Even out of her grasp, it still shimmers and sparkles.

Clipping the necklace around her neck, Victoria says with a smile, “Thank you.”

Kate also gives her the light-ball and wishes her, “Good luck!”, as she hovers into the sky.

* * *

Victoria walks through the empty town, anticipating some sort of attack. She hears the ground rumble and looks to see the source of the noise: the Other Max burrowing in the cement.

She jumps out of the ground and tries to grab Victoria, failing as she rolls out of the way. Reforming herself into a humanoid form, the Other Max taunts, “I’ll kill you for that stab, Vicky!”

The light-ball turns into a light-sword as Victoria shoots back, “Try me.”

The Other Max growls in a primal rage as her hands form into blades. She stabs at Victoria, who blocks the attack with her light-sword. She uses her free hand to fire a beam of light from Kate’s cross necklace, much to her surprise, into the Other Max’s eye.

With the monster dazed, Victoria starts chopping at her enemy’s sword hand, tearing it to ribbons. Eventually, she reaches her body and slices her in half.

Unfortunately for Victoria, the slices of the Other Max’s body start to reform into their own frail figures before charging her. Quickly, she slices at them, tosses them away from her, and kicks at a few of them. Still, they just keep getting back up and rushing Victoria. In the chaos, the Other Max makes a run for it to try and find some place to heal.

Spotting this, Victoria turns the light-sword into a light-harpoon gun and fires square at the Other Max’s back. With the harpoon firmly rooted in the Other Max, Victoria pulls on it and reels her enemy into her grip, wrapping her forearm around her neck. She starts whacking her in the back of the head with the weapon, only further infuriating the villainess.

As the Other Max clones start melding into one primary Other Max, Victoria is consumed wholly…

That is until the light-sword starts piercing through the Other Max’s body from within. After a few strikes, Victoria leaps out of the liquidy mess and wipes a black stain from her eyes.

While the Other Max is reeling in pain, Victoria runs at her and starts slashing at her again, tearing her apart again. This time, she also blasts at the mini-Other-Maxes with the cross necklace, stopping them from growing and stopping them from rejoining their host.

With Victoria distracted, the Other Max swats her away before charging at her with two sword hands. Quickly, Victoria blocks the attack once more with her light-sword, but the strength of the Other Max is much greater than her own.

The cross necklace begins to glow once more and Victoria, noticing it, fires at the Other Max, leaving a hole in her chest.

As the Other Max clutches the wound, Victoria kicks her away and decides to end the battle once and for all.

She runs up to the Other Max and stabs her in the chest with the light-sword.

The villainess’ breathing begins to grow shallow as she moves slower… before suddenly grabbing Victoria by the shoulders in an attempt to crush her in her grip.

Victoria grabs the light-sword by the hilt and, with all the fury in her body, summons all the light from the other spotlights in town to strengthen the sword.

Finally, in a release of this power, the light blows up the Other Max, sending her flying with the sword and Victoria still attached.

Silence falls upon the town as Victoria looks down at her enemy. She rises to her feet and continues glaring at the villainess.

The Other Max looks at her hand and sees the blackness slowly wash away, revealing the crimson blood from within. Underneath all that tarry mess was a human body (or atleast a replication of one) with the wormhole watch fastened into her chest just above the stab wound.

“Shit…”, the Other Max mutters under her breath. “You… You got me.” Her labored breathing shifts. She starts laughing. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll live on.”

“That looks like a deep cut. You sure about that?”

The Other Max nods her head in pain. “Oh, I’m positive! You can’t kill your inner demons. And you certainly can’t kill… an idea.” “I’ll be back in Max’s mind in no time. I won’t remember a damn thing about this, but I know you will. I’ll live on… in you.”

“You’ll be forgotten.”

The Other Max weakly points at Victoria, telling her, “But the lessons… I’ve imparted… They’ll stay with you… forever.” Her head drops and she feels her life slowly fizzling away. “It’s getting dark. ‘Twas nice knowing you.”

Victoria leans close into the Other Max’s face and grumbles, “Go fuck yourselfie.” Scowling at the evil Max, Victoria pulls the light-sword from her chest, finally ending the Other Max (or rather, this iteration of her). She’s shaking as she holds the weapon in her hands, of course, but she’s also relieved that this demonic depression is dead. She sighs and pulls the wormhole watch from her enemy’s corpse, just as it starts to melt into nothingness.

Kate descends from the heavens and holds her wife tightly. “Victoria, are you alright?”

Victoria attaches the wormhole watch to her wrist and says to Kate, “We’re going home. But first, I have to make some stops.”


	12. Chase to Chase, A Marsh Of Mirrorism

DECEMBER 25TH, 2017

Universe-7

Still hiding behind the minibar, Victoria shakes in fear of what could be out there. Suddenly, a flash of light blooms through the gallery. She hears her younger doppelganger tell her, “It’s safe to come out now. It’s just me.”

The older Victoria rises to her feet and looks at the hurt, dirty, shaky young Victoria. She asks her, “What the hell was that?”

Still dripping black ooze, the young Victoria explains, “A demon. Don’t worry, I got rid of her.”

The older Victoria grabs a bottle of vodka and starts pouring a cup of it for herself and her counterpart: “So… You’re… me. Like actually me.”

Young-Victoria sits by the minibar, setting the light ball on the table. She explains, “I’m you from an alternate universe. That sounds nuts, but it’s normal. Everything is fine.” The older Victoria offers her a cup, which she refuses. She’s not quite in the mood for alcohol. “What’s your story? I went to Blackwell, was the Queen Bitch for a couple years.”

The older Victoria raises her glass, saying with a drunken grin on her face, “Congrats.”

“It didn’t make me feel good.”

With a sad chuckle, the older Victoria tells her, “Yeah. Me neither.”

“Anyways, a couple of years passed… Chloe Price got shot in the girls’ bathroom.”

Shock overcomes the older Victoria as she grabs Young-Victoria’s shoulders and asks, “And died?”

Young-Victoria slowly nods her head and asks, “Did that not happen to your Chloe?”

“Max says that she saved Chloe. She was in the bathroom when Nathan tried to kill her. Some timing.”

Young-Victoria sneers to her side, coldly adding, “Yeah, I’ll say. Well, in my timeline, Max didn’t save Chloe. We kicked the Prescotts out of town, fixed things up, and I got a second chance to clean up my act.” “What about you?”

“Kate Marsh - you know her, right?” Once more, Young-Victoria nods her head. “She… tried to kill herself. Because of me.”

Young-Victoria freezes in wide-eyed terror, saddened at the mere thought of that happening. She knows it isn’t too unrealistic after all. Still, she reassures her, “It wasn’t you. It was-”

“Jeffershit. Yeah But I didn’t help when I could have.” The older Victoria pauses, still feeling that self-hatred and trauma boil over. With a deep breath, she continues, “Anyways, it was at our End of the World Party that he drugged me too. Locked me up in his Dark Room and took fucking photographs of me.”

Young-Victoria walks around the minibar to hug her older counterpart. “Oh my God, I’m sorry. How’d you get out of there?”

“David fucking Madsen.”

The two share a good chuckle in relief. “Shit, good on him.”

“It wasn’t all good… While we were in the Dark Room, for God knows what reason, a tornado was ripping apart Arcadia Bay.” Young-Victoria sighs, knowing just how much it hurt her Chloe ( _ wait, was this her timeline or something? _ ) “It killed about seventy-five percent of the town… My parents included.”

Young-Victoria holds her older counterpart tighter, knowing just how much that would have hurt her. “Jesus… What are you doing here then?”

The older Victoria shrugs her shoulders and explains, “Someone had to run this place. It’s just me and Jessica. She’s nice.”

Young-Victoria smirks and tells her in a reassuring tone, “That’s definitely true in my timeline too… Have you gotten the chance to talk to Katie?”

“I have, many times. But I haven’t tried yet. I’m sure she hates me.”

Patting the older Victoria on the shoulders, Young-Victoria tells her, “She doesn’t. Trust me, she’s a very forgiving person.”

“Are you two friends in your timeline?”

“More than that.” Young-Victoria says with a smile. To elaborate, she raises her hand up, showing the older Victoria her wedding ring. “Waaaaay more than that.”

The older Victoria’s eyes are transfixed on it as it glimmers. She also spots Kate’s trademark cross necklace, asking, “Holy shit. How’d it happen?”

“We had each other. When it seemed like the whole world was falling apart, we stuck through it together. But I really have to thank her for everything. She showed me that there was more to life than just being Queen Bitch.”

The older Victoria itches at the back of her neck, stating, “Wow… I really have to talk to my Kate then.”

“Please do. I mean, you have her number still?”

The older Victoria laughs, remarking to her doppelganger, “I’m honestly surprised Wells made us all get each other’s numbers. Yeah, I do.” She starts dialing the number as the younger Victoria walks over to the spot she arrived on. As Young-Victoria adjusts her wormhole watch, the older one asks, “Where are you gonna go after this?”

“I’m gonna go to an alternate Blackwell. Check up on that Kate. Then? Home. Probably a hospital, I got hit in the head a couple times on my adventure.” She looks up at her older doppelganger and offers her a smile while also telling her, “Good luck out there. Please take care.”

“Au revoir.” And as Young-Victoria waves goodbye, she vanishes in a flash of light.

The older Victoria sits alone once more, but not without resolve. She pulls up a number and calls it. After a few seconds of waiting, the young lady on the other line picks up. “Hi, Kate? It’s me, Victoria. I just wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas.”

She smiles, hopeful for the future.

* * *

Travelling through a whirlwind of light, Kate tells her wife, “That was really sweet of you, Vic.”

“Hey, I had to raise my spirits somehow… But still, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you would have done that. I was so stupid back then.”

“And once more, for the millionth time, I’m not angry at you. Never angry at you.” Despite her ethereal form, Kate manages to hold Victoria’s hand in her own. “What’s the plan when we get home?”

“I’m going to the hospital, like I said. And then, I’m gonna have a serious conversation with Max. I’m kinda surprised you’re not as upset about this as I am.”

Kate smiles at Victoria and tells her, “As long as you’re alive, I’m happy. Besides, we’d both be doing the same things if we were in each other’s spots.”

“No, you’d have the Other Max turned into a stain the second you fought her.”

“And you didn’t?”

The two share a chuckle, with Victoria conceding, “Fair. But still… I mean, like, you’re not dead. But you’re like a ghost now!”

“I prefer ‘angel’.”

“I’d prefer you were alive.”

“Likewise. Plus, I’m the only one who can stop a black hole.”

“Yeah, how’s that going still?”

Kate looks into her hands, pulling up the black hole. It’s small, shrinking as she strikes at it with needles of light. She tells Victoria, “I’m busy with it.”

“How long are you going to be busy with it?”

Kate sighs before looking off somewhere, silently trying to avoid an answer. Even she doesn’t know. It scares her. “Hey, we’re here.” She collapses the black hole into her hands as an Arcadia Bay manifests around them.

Universe-None has changed. The clouds are dark, Blackwell is taped off, Autumn is in, and the police are on the lookout for any leads.

Victoria looks around and tells Kate, “Oh. This… may have been a bad idea.” She picks up a poster on a puddle. With a sketch of her face front and center, it reads:

**WANTED**

_ In connection with the disappearances of Maxine “Max” Caulfield and Chloe Elizabeth Price, the murders of Mark Jefferson and Nathan Prescott, and the arrests of the Children of Nature’s Wind Cult _

Quickly, Victoria covers her face with the paper, but Kate gently reassures her with a snap of her fingers, “No worries, I’ve taken care of everything. Light refracts upon us, making us invisible.”

Victoria feels a heat flourish through her body, the rain and blood that once drenched her outfit evaporating into the air. “I’m glad I’m not freezing over here.”

“You’re most certainly welcome.” As the two walk out to the Blackwell Campus Courtyard, they see her: “There’s this universe’s Kate.”

In spite of the cloudy temperature, Kate is hanging out by one of the benches. But she isn’t alone. She’s got Stella and Alyssa, Taylor and Courtney, Dana and Juliet, Warren, Evan, Hayden, Daniel, a whole bunch of friends just enjoying the time they have with her. “She looks happy.”

Kate plants a hand on Victoria’s shoulder and tells her, “She is. Thanks to you… Wanna go up to her?”

A smirk smiles on Victoria’s face. She happily shakes her head and tells Kate, “No. Not while I’ve got you, my dear. I just wanted to see that she’s doing good for herself. Time to go home.” And like that, with Kate fixing up a pathway home on the watch, the duo vanish.

* * *

DECEMBER 25TH, 2014

Universe-227

In a flash of light, Victoria returns to the Monastery, awaited by the warriors of the Bay. For them, it’s been about a few minutes. Daniel proclaims, “You’re back!”

Her head in a flurry, Victoria says to the group, “Yep. Now, if you’ll excuse me… I’m gonna go to the hospital.”

“Where?”

“You tell me.” Victoria collapses to her knees and falls out of consciousness.

Quickly, her allies rush to her aid, trying to shake her awake, check her pulse, call someone to help. “Victoria! Christ, call someone!” Her vision darkens, and she smiles as she sleeps.


	13. The Aftermarsh of Utter Bedlam

DECEMBER 31ST, 2014

Rays of sunlight shine over Victoria, offering nature’s warmth from the world outside. Slowly, she reawakens once more and looks around to see her surroundings. Everything is white, serene, civil. Just like a hospital should feel. She reaches for a remote and turns the television on to the news:

“ _ Relief workers from all across the globe have continued to pour into the State of Oregon and the primarily affected towns of Arcadia Bay, Beaver Creek, and Culmination following the aftermath of the Christmas Eve Attacks one week ago. Just last evening, the Presidential Council confirmed the crisis to be over with the perpetrators of the attacks to be either deceased or in custody. _ ”

The door opens and a friendly nurse steps into the room. With a smile on his face and a tray of breakfast in his hand, he says, “Hey, you’re awake!”

Victoria feels rather unnerved. She’s had her bad time with a male nurse before. “That I am, uh…?”

The nurse places the tray on a table for her before explaining, “Name’s Joey.”

Victoria nervously extends a hand for him to shake, which he does with care. “Nice to meet you. I’m Victoria.”

“It’s an honor. Your parents and friends have been waiting forever for you to wake up. Want me to call them in?”

“Yes please.” She nods her head, all while eating from the cheese omelette on her tray. “Thank you.”

As Joey leaves, Victoria’s parents walk into the room. They hurriedly hug their daughter, with Zara exclaiming, “Victoria, thank god! We were so worried about you!”

Victoria holds her parents, wanting to never let go. “Thanks, guys. How have you been?”

“After you and Kate left, we were checking all over the news to see how you two were doing. But then, the news came in. We’re so sorry about Kate.”

Victoria sighs, looking downcast almost immediately as she remembers. “She gave her life to save mine. I still haven’t gotten super used to it, and I don’t think I ever will. But she did that for me. I just feel so sorry for her family.”

As the Chases set their daughter down, Colin asks, “Should we give them some money?”

Victoria tells him, “Yeah, and more importantly, your time. We’re all one big family after all.”

The door to the room opens once more, and Chloe and Rachel walk in as well. “Look who’s getting breakfast in bed!”

Victoria immediately notices, under Chloe’s trademark beanie, a new hue of hair. Over her long hair from Universe-None is bright green hair dye. Victoria smiles at the sight, adding, “I’m digging the new look, Chloe. Green suits you.”

“I’m a bit tired of being blue, y’know.”

The two girls stand by her side with the Chase parents, and Victoria asks, “How have you two been?”

Chloe explains, “Busy. I’m not big on paperwork so Rachel and Rose have been helping me and Max out a ton. But man, the world’s a wreck.”

Rachel chimes in, “We saved it, that much is true, but everyone still wants answers.”

Victoria raises an eyebrow and asks, “What’s the story then?”

“To save you from having to deal with the media shitstorm going on… Max kinda had to take the spotlight from you. As far as the media’s concerned, Max stopped the Other Max and you fell into a coma while she rescued you.”

Victoria rolls her eyes at what she assumes is Max’s word. She tells Chloe, “What a hero. Glad to see Kate have a cameo in the footnotes.”

“The world knows about Kate’s sacrifice. Or at least, they think they know. Since, y’know…” Chloe winks at Victoria, who knows the truth of course. Her parents on the other hand do not. She sighs and explains bluntly, “She’s an angel of light, or something.”

Victoria harshly crosses her arms. “She’s still dead, even if she really isn’t. As far as I’m concerned, Max killed her. Hell, where is she anyways?”

Rachel looks to the door and says, “She’s outside. She figured you’d be upset with her.”

“I am.”

Chloe holds Victoria’s shoulder and tells her heartfully, “We’re sorry about Kate.”

“You two don’t have anything to apologize for. That said, thank you.”

In steps Max, clearly anxious in her entry. “Victoria-”

“Happy to hear you saved the day. Good job.” Sarcasm is flowing from her tone alone.

“I didn’t want you to have to deal with press being on you.”

Victoria’s glare intensifies. “Thanks, but that’s not what I’m mad about.” She sits up and points at Max with an accusative finger, “Why was it Katie, hm? Couldn’t bear living in a world with YOU?”

Chloe looks to Victoria and asks her, understanding of the current situation, “Vic-”

“Why’d you use her? I’m sure you could’ve stopped the black hole.”

Zara holds her daughter’s hand and urges her softly, “Victoria. Please…”

She lets up on her old mean demeanor, and feels down once more. “Sorry. It’s just… Jesus, Max. Why?”

Max knows how much it hurts to tell her, but it is her truth: “It was the only way.”

Victoria leans back in her bed and crosses her arms, actively making an effort to look away from Max. “Keep telling yourself that. I’d prefer not to.”

* * *

Arcadia Bay had been destroyed. Leveled at its entirety. Ninety-five percent of the town had been evacuated and saved, including the warriors left behind to fight Bedlam. Roughly eighteen stragglers in the town lost their lives, in addition to thirty-four lives lost in Culmination and eleven lives lost in Beaver Creek.

But with the aid of global relief, the two Daniels, Jumbo, the Merry Marauders of Mars, Max, Rachel, and many more, work has been quick to try and rebuild the town.

People have started paying for land, and Arcadia Bay’s borders have extended to do so. People want to bring these wastelands to life once more. Stores, diners, hotels, real estate moguls (still no sign of Prescott, thankfully).

People won’t give up just yet.

* * *

FEBRUARY 4TH, 2015

Victoria and her parents managed to strike a deal with the Marshes, a plan for them to all live under the same roof back in town. It was tough, what with the Marshes still reeling from their eldest daughter’s heroic “death”, but they soon accepted. Richard put it like this:  _ No use wallowing in tragedy, you just have to live on for her and the future. You mourn and you live on _ .

As the setting sun glows down on the regrowing town, Victoria has taken it upon herself to help the Marshes move into a sizable apartment by the Bay’s old mountains.

As she moves in several chairs through the front door, Richard graciously tells her, “We appreciate havin’ you and your family here, Vic.”

“Thank you. I’m glad you came back.”

Richard smirks and tells her, “We’ve lived here for decades. Where else would we go? Plus, your parents gave us some good money.” As he sets up the chairs in the middle of the living room, he notices that Victoria looks glum still. He asks her, “What’s the plan once Neo-Arcadia opens up?”

Victoria raises an eyebrow and asks him in minor disbelief, “That’s seriously the name they’re going for?” He shrugs his shoulders and Victoria tells him, “I’ve heard UCLA’s opening up online classes as a relief effort thing. Dunno what else I’ll do. Probably work.”

“That’s good.” Sandra walks into the living room and hands them both glasses of water. “I should also thank you for the whole ‘saving the world’ thing. We all do.”

“I appreciate it, but it wasn’t me. It was Kate…” She pauses, respectful of the sacrifice Kate had to make. She looks down at her necklace as it shimmers. It has done that for as long as she has had it, and it hasn’t stopped.  _ Just like Kate promised _ . As a tear drops from Victoria’s eye, she tells Richard, “I’m sorry that I-”

Carefully, he hugs his daughter-in-law and reassures her, “You didn’t have to apologize. If I know my Kate well, I know she would’ve wanted you to be alive and well. It’s okay… Plus, she came around the other day and told us what happened.”

Victoria asks as she wipes away tears, “Really?”

“Yeah.” A hopeful grin grows on Richard’s face. “Says she saved you from fighting a supervillain. Good work, you.”

He pats Victoria on the back and she tells him happily, “Thanks.”

“Now, let’s get the couch in here, try and set up the TV. That’ll get Lynn and Josie off their phones already.” The two head out of the living room and into the sunny bright future.

**Author's Note:**

> So I kinda ran out of steam with this story back in May, but I've come to the decision that I will properly end this story sooner rather than later.
> 
> Keep your eyes open for Part 6...


End file.
